Geez, I wish I would have written the below post on being creative, but alas it was written by a briliant fellow, Hugh MacLeod, who also does those funky business cards you’ve seen somewhere and tons of other creative renderings.
And while this post is some 3 years old – it’s still one of the best damn posts out there on "How to Be Creative." I particularly like #2, #4, #5, #6. Which one is your favorite and why?
Now go and pick up those damn crayons, or your favorite pen and start creating just for the heck of it! My kids do it all the time and the stuff they come up with is pretty amazing.
One of my favorite authors was killed on Monday in a car accident. David Halberstam was truly a revolutionary journalist and writer and he will be missed. Roy P. Clark of Poynter.org wrote a very good piece on him here.
B.L. Ochman has a great treatise on how to pitch to bloggers. Pay attention to it – it’s a very good primer on what bloggers need to perhaps cover your books, your music, your art or even your navel. (Yes, there are blogs dedicated to belly button topics.)
Don’t be afraid to pitch to bloggers, really -we’re nice folks, just keep in mind how to pitch. If traditional PR folks would learn some of these same techniques the whole world would be a better place. As a journalist, I still get tons of pitches about things I haven’t covered in years. Can you say Biotech sector?
So really read up on the folks you want to get covered by and that goes for online, offline, bloggers etc.
Need a real world example? I saw Isabelle Allende last week at a wonderful university event. At the end there was an open 30 minute Q & A – hundreds of folks were at this event, so people that had questions had to go to a mike.
Now imagine the whole crowd’s surprise when the first student poses this question, "I haven’t read any of your books and am not familiar with your work. A friend brought me here. Can you tell me why I should read your books and what the best one to start with is?"
Hmm. Ms. Allende was more than gracious to this question. Good spirit.
But imagine reaching out to a blogger and basically with the pitch you’re sending them saying the same thing, "I haven’t read your blog, a PR flak dragged me here – or I’m a PR flak, and I don’t have time to read your blog – but will you write about me?"
Not so good.
Make it a goal to read a new blog a week – by the end of the year you will have a read 52 blogs in your peer arena and you will have probably made a relationship or two with at least five of them if you’re wiling to reach out to them.
Think of it as speed dating – only with blogs, no drinks and no uncomfortable pauses where you realize even in two minutes or less that you never want to see the person across from you again!
Read a blog a week – don’t get obsessed with it and I guarantee you’ll make some new friends and find some blogs to frequent and exchange news, links or blogtipping with.
This week, I had the great pleasure of talking to an award-winning photographer today about how to stay inspired as an artist and I had the wonderful opportunity to see Isabelle Allende speak about writing as a revolution.
Why is it important to you?
Because many of us, somehow become stuck in our profession or what we’re doing or misconceptions we hold about what the best ways are of doing it.
As a writer and a publicist, I can tell you that one of the keys to my staying inspired is my deep belief that living life to its fullest is a revolution. Stop treating your life as an unappreciated pasttime and start taking steps to create what it is you want to be creating.
If you’re a writer, create another work of fiction, non-fiction, compelling blog post or whatever can spark more creativity.
If you’re a book author – create more content from your book. Don’t think you’re ever done when the last page is written -espescially in writing business books. Keep your book and your message dynamic. Be constantly engaging new thought around it!
When I get stuck – I look at a wall in my office filled with pictures of creative people and that inspires me to do more. In our country, we’re so blessed with "too much" that we often forget to strive for more. There’s a very famous author that once said winnning the Pulitzer Prize was a terrible thing because it made him stop yearning for more in his work. It stultified his drive.
Don’t let that happen to you. Always yearn for more, create more and have a passion for more.
Don’t be lazy – don’t be satisfied – don’t be comfortable – don’t meet the status quo.
| "Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out our own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” (Steve Jobs) | |
Here’s a superb interview with author and blogger John Moore on Starbucks and marketing.
1. Hi John – your Changethis.com manifesto "What Must Starbucks Do?" and your book "Tribal Knowledge" are garnering much buzz. Can you give a brief background on your role at Starbucks and from whence you came?
My Starbucks career began in 1994 when I was a part-time Barista slinging coffee drinks in Dallas. Very soon thereafter I joined the Starbucks field marketing team designing and implementing new store marketing plans. By 1999 I was part of the Starbucks corporate marketing team working on in-store and out-of-store marketing programs. I left Starbucks in January 2003 with my last role as a Retail Marketing Manager responsible for managing a quarterly in-store/out-of-store promotion designed to drive nearly $1B in sales.
2. The idea of becoming a major brand and then letting that brand dissipate is not one that comes to mind when you think of Starbucks, yet Howard Schultz noted in a now public memo that, "Over the past ten years, in order to achieve growth, development and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 to 13,000 stores and beyond, we’ve had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have led to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand." And to that end, isn’t that a natural downside of profitable and expansionist growth – or is there a way to avoid it?
I wouldn’t call it a downside as all businesses face growing pains—it’s natural. Starbucks was founded on the mission of changing the way people in Seattle appreciate coffee. That mission was expanded from a small corner of the world to include the entire world. Now, with over 14,000 locations in nearly 40 countries around the globe, one can make the case that Starbucks has accomplished its mission. Starbucks growing pains are a result of what to do now.
If a business grows, it will eventually face questions of how fast and how far to grow it. I advise business leaders to write down a list of three-to-five areas they never want to compromise as their business grows. And every so often, these business leaders should revisit this list and determine if their actions have compromised on the list. If so, they will need to act and act swiftly.
3. For the love of all of us chain-mocha latte drinkers, what are some immediate ways Starbucks can reclaim its uniqueness?
Starbucks has reached a level of ubiquity to such an extent I’m not sure they can reclaim their uniqueness. The company used to compete on great coffee with customers going out of their way just to get a cup of Starbucks coffee. Nowadays, the company competes more on convenience and consistency than on great coffee.
However, in my WHAT MUST STARBUCKS DO? manifesto, I suggest Starbucks should worry less about monetizing customer traffic and frequency and worry more about making great-tasting coffee. 44-million customers visit Starbucks every week and given all the hoopla around Starbucks music endeavors, it seems Starbucks is more interested in selling customers a CD than a cup of coffee. Same goes for selling books and movies to customers. Starbucks must stop spending its time and talents on how to sell CDs, books, and movies to customers. Instead, Starbucks must use its time and talents to sell more great-tasting coffee.
4. And beyond that, how can any company take Starbucks as an example and use the best insights from its journey and apply it to their own?
This might sound odd, but it’s true. During its formative years, Starbucks never thought about “branding strategy.” Starbucks was too busy building a profitable business and making both customers and employees happy than to worry about “branding.” There’s wisdom in that approach. If a business makes money, makes customers happy, and makes employees happy … then the by-product will be the creation a strong brand. That’s what Starbucks did. And that’s exactly what any other company can do.
5. One of the things you note in your ChangeThis! Manifesto is "If Starbucks wants to return to its roots of being known and revered for the highest quality coffee in the world, then it needs to stop talking about the brand and start talking about the coffee." How does this apply to any company and what they are trying to brand?
Marketing consultants Al and Laura Ries talk about how brand leaders promote the category and not the brand. Leading brands are better off educating customers about the product category more than the brand. For example, Method makes unique household cleaning products. They’ve carved out a meaningful niche in a product category dominated by the megalithic Proctor & Gamble. Method has done this by talking about the product category of all-natural cleaning products more than talking about the Method brand.
Same goes for Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods primary marketing message is communicating to customers why natural and organic foods taste better and are better for you. Their secondary marketing message is the Whole Foods brand.
Both Method and Whole Foods work under the marketing premise that education of customers will lead to appreciation by customers.
6. In your book you talk about "practicing passionate followership" – Can you describe that and 3 things companies can do to empower that practice?
In business life, we’ve been conditioned to lead or get out of the way. We’ve come to believe that being a follower is being a loser and the only way to win is to lead. I’ve come to believe that followership is more important than leadership. Not everyone can be a leader but everyone can be a passionate follower.
Things a business can do to practice passionate followership include:
#1. Don’t succumb to the “Not Invented Here” syndrome. If someone somewhere has found a better way to do something, use it. Don’t waste time and money trying to create a second-rate copy-cat version of something that already works brilliantly.
#2. Never bemoan that your company lacks leaders because it probably lacks passionate followers more than it does passionate leaders.
#3. Foster a company culture where it is better to give than to receive.
7. You also say, "a bigger business doesn’t always equate to being a better business. At some point, big becomes bad." Can you give us some telltale symptoms to look for in regard to this?
In the eyes of many customers, big business becomes bad business. Bigness becomes a matter of being convenient rather than being unique (McDonald’s). Bigness becomes a game of market share not customer care (Dell). Bigness becomes ubiquitous (Microsoft).
I advise businesses to the focus their efforts on being better and not bigger. Be the BEST at whatever you do. Become recognized by your customers and by your industry as always delivering the BEST products, the BEST services, and the BEST customer experiences. By being the best, some degree of bigness will follow.
8. Finally, if you had to give one actionable piece of branding advice across the board, what would it be?
Worry more about building a business than about building a brand. As I mentioned earlier, if a business makes money, makes customers happy, and makes employees happy … then the by-product will be the creation a strong brand.
Yo-Yo Ma: Nothing great ever produced in isolation
Mercury News wire services
Excerpted Article: "The notion of cultural purity is a dead end, said famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who was born in Paris to Chinese parents and came to the United States as a child prodigy.
Ma’s internationally recruited Silk Road Ensemble involves instruments such as Indian sitars, Islamic ouds, and Chinese erhu, suona and pipa and has filled museums with works from Azerbaijan, Iran, Mongolia and Uzbekistan.
"I have this theory that I share with (Art Institute of Chicago president) Jim Cuno," Ma told the Associated Press. "It’s that nothing great was ever produced in isolation."
Ma says his study of history at Harvard University led him to realize that Eastern and Western cultures are not self-contained, but have mixed since at least the time of Alexander the Great."
I love this article because if applied to the blogosphere, it underscores why blogs, connectivity and authentic exchange are so powerful and important.
To take a lyrical note from Yo Yo, remember this: "No great blog was ever produced in isolation."
If you’re on the fence about whether or not you have enough expertise or knowledge to write a book, the only way to really know is to get the hell off the fence and start writing! To aid you – here are the "top ten reasons you should write a business book."
1. You have an expertise that stands the test of time.
2. Your clients and peers are always saying they wish they could carry your wisdom around with them.
3. It would make your Mother proud.
4. Business books are often filled with drivel, but yours would be different.
5. You want to change the world with your ideas and are willing to work hard to engage people about them.
6. Your book would be a guidepost to others who want to succeed from your hard-earned lessons.
7. You’re dedicated to promoting conversation and authentic exchange in your peer arena.
8. Your own bookshelf, desk and floor is littered with "other people’s business books" and the only one missing is yours.
9. You’re willing to pack up all those aforementioned books and put fingers to keyboard and write a page a day…starting today.
10. You understand that writing a business book is not about becoming a milllionaire author but more importantly about empowering yourself and others to raise the bar and do more.
Here’s a list of ten things your publisher might not tell you about the marketing of your book:
1. We have 100 other books to market this month and only three full-time PR folks.
2. We mail your book out with the press release folded inside and never use a personalized letter or book packet.
3. We’re trying the best we can but you can’t possibly expect us to send the books to the bloggers for review too? We don’t know that many bloggers.
4. We like you, we want you to succeed, but you have to market the book yourself to really have it be a success.
5. Put out multiple press releases about your book covering different topics from the book.
6. We would like to help in creating and repurposing content out of your book for amazing sites like Changethis.com and others, but we really don’t know where to start.
7. We thought a virtual book tour was a ride they offer at Disney.
8. Always send hand-written thank you notes to anyone who talks, reviews, or quotes your book.
9. Spend the extra few dollars and buy some postcards that have your book logo on them and definitely have a web site devoted to your book.
10. Treat the book as you would your own child and don’t let a day go by without introducing it to someone new who could possibly review it. Be willing to send a free copy of your book out to lots of folks.
Question: Does every business author need a web site or a blog?
Answer: YES.
Not only do you need a Web presence, but it’s a darn good idea to start a conversation with readers and encourage them to link to your blog or your site. When it comes to business authors, it’s ideally important to have this because the immediacy of a web site or a blog connects you to potential readers, reviewers and peers within your arena. It also connects you easily to journalists. And YES, you should do a press release on PRWeb that announces the launch of your book, your web site or your blog if you have not done so.
Shel Holz’s post on why newspapers will still be around in ten years and how they are evolving.
Great post on writing leads to hook readers.
"Sometimes getting the first paragraph down is the hardest thing about writing. Get it right, and the rest of the story will flow. Often it helps to remember the seven main lead sentence formats. Write your lead following one or two of the established frameworks, choose the one that works best, and away you go." (excerpt – Strive Notes blog)
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