tone and tenor

This morning on NPR, they had a segment about wire taps - that hearing it straight from the source with the original speaker's demeanor, tone and tenor, was more useful than a recreated scene from a crime or case. It made me think of qualitative research - that actually conducting qualitative in-home interviews, man on the street interviews, or ethnographic style projects, would pay forward tenfold in making the case for a particular strategy.

The reporter said that 50% of communication is done with tone and tenor. I think 50% of our time spent hypothesizing whether or not this creative will work OR testing it once it's done should be spent just talking to consumers, hearing it straight from the source, asking the right questions, and making notes on their tone and tenor. Because if insight can make or break a criminal case, it surely can be used to make or break a creative one.

Plan on.

Insight Chasers

on a long drive today, I started to think about what if...I started my own agency. Thinking about filling a niche that traditional agencies try so hard to reach while setting myself up for long-term planner wisdom and connections planning 101, I arrived at the name (and purpose) of Insight Chasers.

now, if I can only harness the power of the creative collective online via social media, maybe this 'agency' could be virtual, of the future, and accessible to anyone.

read The New Socialism by Wired and you'll get a better sense of the collectivist community I'm referring to.

let's talk about Books, baby

In the absence of thoughtful content, I'll talk about books.

A book that entered my life recently on loan from a colleague is In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the cult of speed. What is the Slow Movement?

It is a cultural revolution against the notion that faster is always better. The Slow philosophy is not about doing everything at a snail’s pace. It’s about seeking to do everything at the right speed. Savoring the hours and minutes rather than just counting them. Doing everything as well as possible, instead of as fast as possible. It’s about quality over quantity in everything from work to food to parenting.

It was a truly fantastic read, engaging the mind, senses, and emotions on a completely different level. The chapter on slowness in the work like, I found to be particularly inspirational.

Tonight, I went to Borders - on a mission to find periodicals that cater to the affluent (new business pitch). I wound up purchasing: Cigar Aficionado, RobbReport Sports & Luxury Automobile, and the RobbReport 21st Annual Best of the Best. There seems to be a deficit in magazines that cover "luxury," but my ignorant hypothesis is that the affluent don't read magazines.

Once I had the mags firmly in hand, I perused and bought (for my pleasure and edification) the following:

Turning the mind into an ally - (on the back) Strengthening, calming, and stabilizing the mind is the essential first step to accomplishing nearly any goal.

Messages: The Communication Skills Book - You'll discover new skills to help you communicate your ideas more effectively and become a better listener.

50th Anniversary Communication Arts - 38 Award-winning projects showcasing the best of interactive design

There's Treasure Everywhere (Calvin & Hobbes) - These two never cease to amaze me. :)

I'll leave you with a quote from Calvin:

"Why wait until I'm a teen-ager? I want to be idolized now!"

plannerly advice

My director and I went to launch a month ago so I could pick his brain about things to improve upon. Here are some of his advice clips on being a planner:

• The job of the planner is to be the most confident person in the room. If you think about it, we're the ones who actually make sense of why we're doing what we're doing, why we're talking to a particular target audience, why we're using this particular strategy, why this strategy works, etc. Knowing that all of the parts make sense should allow us to speak with confidence. :)
• With this confidence, planners set in place the backbone of an idea. Again, we're there to answer the 'why'? We need to sound like we're in control.

At times when I'm struggling for a new angle or maybe the day-to-day has caught up with me and my life feels like Groundhog's Day, I turn the planning discipline on myself. Where am I? Where do I want to be? How do I get there?

Ok. Go!

just do it!

As a Virgo, I'm a big fan of organization. I also have a tendency to get overwhelmed with my perfectionisms (I don't think that's a word, but it should be: a combo of mannerisms and a perfectionist's attitude).

Today, I'm tackling the art and science of writing a "to do" list. Btw, I love that there is an "art" to it; in fact, there's an art to anything as long as you desire to work creatively. :)

Lifehacker says think of your "to do" list as a list of instructions: if the instructions are clear, specific, and easily executed, you're golden. The instructions should be written in such a way that you don't have to do any additional thinking once you've read them. It's the planning up front that does the thinking for you; Lifehacker says 90% of doing anything is the planning.

Make sure you differentiate between projects and tasks. A "to do" list is not the place for projects that require a lot thinking or are vague in description (Ex. write a research plan). To make it on the list, these projects need to be broken up into tiny, smaller tasks (Ex. Write background, write, objectives, write target audience, write topics to discuss, etc).

Use specific, active verbs. Inspire yourself to work with creative terms of action: analyze, create, write, develop, organize, etc. Note: if something's been on your list for a long time, break it down further or re-word it to get the energy going. 43 Folders says the best trick here is to simply phrase your task in a form like: “verb the noun with the object.”

Consider, for example, how an oversized to-do like “Prepare the big presentation” might be improved upon by zeroing in on the physicality of a first step like “Draft four ideas for our presentation’s theme.” Where the former task provides no purchase for a sensible ascent, the latter gives us a fat handle for getting started with something that already feels familiar.

Well, I hope this has helped some of you. I know it's certainy given me some food for thought when writing out my next "to do" list or revising my current one. Make items actionable, make them tasks and not projects, break it all down into bite-size bits, use the right verbs, and start getting things done. Just do it!

Because only you hold the power and responsibility for defining your work. (43 folders)

levels of connectivity

Everyone wants to know how to get involved with social media. What BIG IDEA do I need to come up with? Is it an advertising space? How do I do it.

Funjet Vacations (via one of Gmail's ads) has got it right. They are connected. They understand that I might want to share some of the information I see on their site with other people I know. So they have put information on social media sites that enable that sharing to happen.

Another useful way to use these same sites is to provide options to share the information you're currently reading on X site ON Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, via email, etc.

I do like how Funjet provide a myriad of ways in which you can receive information from them, depending on your level of connectivity.

I expect to see more sites integrating with the main three (Myspace really seems to be going the music route): Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

With so much on the web, having these ubiquitous tools helps us all streamline communications and the information that's relevant to us. Instead of creating something new (unless it's better), just sync up with these already existing, popular social media sites. Your fans will thank you.

my mission

WOW. Even though I've changed the header several times since I started this blog, my mission is still the same idea:

One of the most motivating words to me is connectivity: the value of being connected in order to grow. This blog should be a center for a learning, a place to share experiences and knowledge, and a social media outlet for junior planners who read blogs.

Funny that I probably wrote this in early 2008, and we couldn't be more connected to each other as we are today, and social media has taken off like wild fire.

I need to pay tribute to Piers for teaching me how to spot trends. :)

Overhaul

Hey JPIA fans, I want to apologize for the lack of serious content lately. I hate to disappoint. I have a lot to say and have found myself getting setback by "the fear of perfection" lately...it's stupid really. A wonderful recruiter once told me about stalling on my resume: "Well you're definitely not going to get a job that way!" True dat.

So I think what I need is a clean-up. As a strategist, I need a BIG IDEA to inspire the direction I go with this "overhaul."

BIG IDEA: creative connectivity? Inspire productivity? (woah, a rhyme!) how about: connected productivity? I wish I had a better word for productivity...NOTE TO PLANNERS: EVERY WORD ON THE BRIEF COUNTS, don't ever think that it doesn't.

I'm looking for inspiration lately. The work day sometimes just seems to fly by without any of it...damnit, I can do something about this. :)

Ok, so I know where I want to be. Where am I now - feeling stuck, bogged down by "too much stuff," overwhelmed with idealism, inhibited by deadlines. YIKES!

JPIA needs a pep-talk. Come on Junior! Get your sh*t together, you can do this! You love planning, creating ALL aspects of a strategy, and being creative with communications; The "social world" is so easy to get wrapped up in. Make time for your solo act; it will pay-forward into the social sphere tenfold.

off to clean-up now. Go!

MYT 17 - An Optimist's Economy