Creative Inspiration: Gifts from the sea

January 18, 2012 in Design+Creativity, Inspiration | Tags: , , , , , , | 7 comments

Where do you go for creative inspiration? For me, one place is the sea. It offers extraordinary details if you’re patient and curious enough to let them wash over you. The sea reminds me that the most beautiful forms are the most simple and direct. Too often, we complicate things by seeking out lofty solutions. Most of the time, the answer is sitting right there just waiting to be noticed.

………………

“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious,
too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach—
waiting for a gift from the sea.“
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh

And you? Where do you go? The museum? The shower? A bike ride?

Is Your Marketing Budget Working Smarter, Not Harder?

January 10, 2012 in Branding, Inspiration, Process+Best Practices | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

“I want to work smarter, not harder in 2012,” a friend resolved at an annual New Years Day party where guests reflect on the past year and state intentions for the new one.

Working smarter often involves working harder at first, but not harder on the same old stuff. Working smarter means putting systems in place that conserve time, energy and money. But that work often means asking hard questions. Otherwise we would set up resource-saving systems more often.

Which brings me to marketing budgets. It’s easy to squander time and money, equally valuable assets.

We all do it. It’s hard not to. Being organized and clear takes effort.

The problem is, we also lament that we have no time or money to get the job done the right way. The right way:

• Meets a short- or long-term goal

• Changes a behavior for the better through our work

• Gains a prospect

• Closes a sale, or

• Fills a workshop….to name a few.

In other words, we create convenient blind spots. But you can’t progress with blind spots. And the bigger the organization, the easier it is to keep getting derailed.

Not too long ago, I declined to submit a proposal to an organization I would have liked to work with. Their budget was fairly small, yet they required a cost estimate for 12 rounds of corrections. They should have needed only two or three. They lightheartedly confessed to too many cooks in the kitchen. This is no laughing matter, especially when resources are precious. Instead of putting their resources towards a well-conceived and executed effort, they put them towards poor planning, beaurocracy, and mistakes. Even worse, they were planning for the negative instead of the positive.

I want to help people succeed, not be party to their failure.

This first month of the new year is a perfect time to start spending your precious resources on the right stuff. To do that, apply some of these questions to single projects or your overall business goals.

• Can this project or effort do double duty? Can a project like an annual report function more like a year-round marketing tool? It might require a bit more strategic thinking and reworking of copy. The result could be extra kudos, new members, more free time, or saved money. My approach is asking questions that find overlooked opportunities.

• Do you have a system in place for evaluating your efforts? Soft results like a compliment are just as valuable as hard results like numbers. But how are you getting them? Websites are easy to measure because you have user logs. Are you looking at those logs? Have you sought help interpreting them? What if it’s not a website? Even a simple analog system for tracking how people found you or how they signed up for a course is better than nothing. Remember, your budget is limited; you want to know how and why you’re successful…or not. Strategy is just a fancy word for making deliberate, meaningful decisions that get you from point A to point B.

• Are you meeting people where they are? Is your ideal client really on Twitter? Or are they sitting in the waiting room of a yoga center? Are they at beer and wine festivals or are they on LinkedIn, or both? Sometimes you have to be in many places at once till you figure that out. (I’m still figuring that out and I’m adjusting my strategies as I go.) And if you have to be in many places at once, what kind of strategy are you using to conserve your time while being interesting, useful and friendly?

• Have you done your homework? It doesn’t matter if you’re hiring a web designer, a business coach, a copywriter or a marketing person. Have you asked enough questions or are you blindly trusting? (Hint: I love when people ask questions. Be demanding. Be curious. Educated clients produce great work.)

• Do you know who you are and what you’re trying to achieve? I mean, do you really know? Or has it gotten lost in the shuffle? Are you on auto pilot? Are you doing things they way they’ve always been done? Can you post your values or goals on a wall?

• Finally, what do you need help with and what can you do yourself? Where do you get the most stymied? Some people need higher-level thinking and strategy. Some need physical tools like a branding system or templates. Some need a marketing plan.

Get clear on what you can do versus what you should invest in so you can get your systems in place.

So you can protect your resources.

So you can spread your magic.

Take a first step. Figure out the rest later.

January 6, 2012 in Inspiration, Process+Best Practices | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

“Ship often. Ship lousy stuff, but ship. Ship constantly.” —Seth Godin

……………

Diving in head first not only goes against conventional wisdom, but it goes beyond most people’s comfort zones.

We’re always told to plan, to be level headed, to be prudent, to be structured. The only problem is that our fear, doubt, procrastination, worry, perfectionism, definitions of success (add as necessary) trick us into staying put. But we believe that our delay is really prudence.

The irony is that it often takes doing something first before we can figure it out.

Not the other way around.

We wait for the epiphany or the permission or the consensus from the committee.

We wait for the degree or the store front or the perfect date on the calendar.

Waiting and delay kills the energy needed to launch into that activity. Delay is the perfect open door for energy-sucking doubt to creep in.

Do-first-figure-it-out-later is not a good idea if:

• You could lose your shirt because shipping it required a lot of money

• You could lose enormous amounts of time by putting the cart before the horse

• You’re not clear about who you are and what you have to offer

• You’re not in sync with your values, intentions or interests or those of the company you work for

You usually know as much or more than you need to know for taking that first step. You are more likely to discover better ways to enhance that service or product by first trying it out than you would if you had planned, planned, planned. You now have new information to go on that you didn’t have before.

The truth is, there’s a lot of schlock out there. Delayers are usually the most conscientious ones. They care about making it right. So if you’re delaying announcing that workshop you haven’t fleshed out, or offering that new service that lacks details, or testing that product on a group before it’s perfect, just know that your effort will be better than most. Offer a discount if it makes you feel better.

The key is movement. Movement triggers other actions, ideas and improvements.

So, what’s on the ship list? What step can you take?

………………..

(Image credit: Flickr creative commons / skipnclick)

If Only We’d Made Cheese in High School Chemistry Class

December 15, 2011 in Culinaria, Local Goodness, Sustainability | Tags: , , , | 2 comments

My mother likes to tell people what I said about chemistry class, “I don’t know why anyone would care about the rate of a reaction. I don’t even care about the reaction itself.”

This, coming from the daughter of two biochemists.

I’ve always loved science, but failing at one type forever brands you a flunkie.

And yet, I’ve spent more hours than I can count creating science on the stove, in the oven and, unfortunately, in the fridge of the bluish-green variety.

Chemistry was never so fun than at a recent cheesemaking class with cheese whiz Mary Rosenblum (and science-fiction author). Thanks to SlowFood Portland (organizers) and to Chef Robert Reynolds Chef Studio (use of space).

It helps that Mary has a casual swagger in the kitchen and is a most generous teacher, making you feel as though her 20 years of cheesemaking could be yours if you allowed yourself to experiment and not worry too much. Suddenly, the rate of the reaction and especially the reaction are interesting, and not just because you get to eat the results. Alas, Mary is a storyteller, a science-fiction one at that. I found myself on the edge of my seat wanting to know how the milk thickened.

Most of all, the way Mary taught cheesemaking is how I feel about cooking. It’s not that complicated, mistakes aren’t the end of the world (in fact they’re good teachers), it’s fun and creative. If we demystified cooking, more people would do it.

Among what I learned was:

• A local source for pasture-raised milk, which will produce a better cheese. Or buy raw milk.

• Since spring milk tastes better, you can buy a lot and freeze it. But that shouldn’t stop you from making cheese any time.

• Feta lasts as long as a year if it’s in brine. Mary packs her feta, as well as the soft mold cheese we made, in jars with garlic cloves and olive oil. Great gift idea.

• You don’t have to go nuts with sanitation in the kitchen. Just use common sense. Example: don’t pet the cat and then stick your hands in the cheese.

• Feed your mistakes to your chickens or your neighbors chickens. They’ll love it.

• Do get yourself a cheese thermometer though, as they have finer increments of degrees than a candy thermometer.

• Most store-bought milk has stabilizers that increase shelf life, even organic milk, but produce lesser quality cheese.

……………………………..

Ricotta Cheese
by Mary Rosenblum

1. Heat a gallon of whole or skim milk on the stove to at least 190 degrees. Remove from heat.

2. Use either 1/4 cup of vinegar or lemon juice, or 1 teaspoon of tartaric or citric acid dissolved in water, and add to the milk. Wait till you see the curd start to separate from the whey (which will be clear). Stir very gently to incorporate the acid into all the milk but be careful not to break up the curds too much. Add more acid if solids don’t separate.

3. When cool enough, drain the curds through a wet, boiled or microwaved muslin (or some other thin clean cotton). It’s okay to let the curds and whey sit overnight.

4. Rinse curds under water if you want to remove the vinegar or lemon flavor. Alternately, you can add a lemon rind for flavor.

5. Refrigerate or freeze. Ricotta is one of the few cheeses that freeze well. Use in any recipe calling for ricotta.

How easy is that?

…………………………

Consider becoming a member of SlowFood Portland for other events like this.

Which Doors Will You Close So Others Can Open?

December 7, 2011 in Inspiration, Marketing, Process+Best Practices | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

When one door is closed, don’t you know, another is open. —Bob Marley

With the closing of the year, December is a perfect time to consider the doors you’re keeping open, the doors you have yet to open and, often more importantly, the doors to consider closing. Not slamming. Not locking. Just closing. (You can always reopen them.)

I talk a lot about closing doors so you can open others, not because it’s easy for me to do! It’s because I know it has to be done in order to conserve energy, create success, explore new opportunities and maintain enthusiasm for your work.

We keep doors open that are better shut, and for good reason.

We fear a potential loss. We’re hard-wired to avoid loss, a concept called loss aversion. Barry Schwartz talks about it in his book, “Paradox of Choice.” Even if a loss will really be our gain, we often make decisions that don’t benefit us because the primal part of our brain kicks in. Just by knowing this, you can override that automatic response and make a different decision.

You will always have a loss, but you will always have a gain, too. The problem is, the gain is unknowable and the thing we have is knowable. It might suck, but at least it’s familiar. We also don’t want to disappoint people, another form of loss aversion.

Opening a new door takes energy and time. Yes and no. It depends on the door. Most of us are so risk averse that we’re not likely to open a brand new door so wide that an ocean of possibility rushes in that we suddenly have to deal with. And remember that we’re also closing doors.

We have to figure out what we want. Many of us work on auto pilot and we also do what is nearest or easiest or most crisis-oriented. We rarely leave time for the kind of reflection that can open up new opportunities. This affects all of us — the in-house marketing or project manager, the sole proprietor, the small business owner.

Other people are involved. If you work for or with other people, closing doors might be a little trickier. You have to justify a change. But maybe your staff plugging away at an effort that isn’t beneficial. Or you’re working with companies that don’t bring out the best in you. Maybe you can’t seize another opportunity because your time and effort is tied up elsewhere. You might need to step up and gently closes a door.

………….

Years ago, I got rid of a large part of my book collection. I thought it was sacrilege but I wanted to simplify my surroundings. I created three piles: Keep, Get Rid Of and Maybe. I let the Maybe pile sit for a few days. I discovered I kept books I thought I should read but didn’t really want to. They were a cognitive drain. I got clear with what I was really curious about, what made me feel expanded and what I deeply wanted to learn, which meant having to acknowledge the opposite.

Business and work decisions are more complicated than books. But most likely, you don’t need to think about which doors to close; you already know what they are. Look at your business efforts that leave you anxious, frustrated, bored, unappreciated, angry or uncertain. The doors to open? They say those will open magically, but only when you’re courageous enough to close some first.

You have good and important things to offer. You have to make sure that the right doors are open for those things (and the right people) to move freely about.

Good luck! And if you have a good door-closing story to share, I’d love to hear it.

To Know Where You’re Going, Know Who You’re Walking Towards

December 1, 2011 in Branding, Inspiration, Marketing, Process+Best Practices | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

It is always easier to do than to plan to do. We often have an internal knowing about where we’re going and what we want to accomplish, whether it’s a visionary decision or just a project. So we skip the kinds of meaningful questions that help us chart the best path.

But that’s because the questions can stop you in your tracks (proof that you’re getting somewhere!) because they’re hard to answer. They involve having to think critically about who you are and why you do what you do. They call to mind selling and marketing, which most of us avoid.

But most of all, we’re not clear about who we’re walking towards. Or we’re walking towards everyone and no one.

As the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Only that phrase has a negative focus. What if, instead, you viewed questions that help you plan for success as a fun and revealing exercise?

I have a confession to make. When I’m working on my own projects, I try to skip the planning process I make clients go through.

Then I turn back around and start where I should have started.

And then I have a good laugh at myself for thinking I can construct the walls of a house without first giving it a foundation.

Maybe we feel pressure from our boss. Or there’s an event coming up and we need materials for it quickly. Or we’ve lingered too long with a bad logo, a confusing company name or zero marketing. We just want to dive in and get started.

We are all pressed for time. But here are three truths of skipping a discovery process:

• It wastes much more time than it takes.

• You lose out on the ah-has that take you from so-so to really effective.

• You remain confused and efforts become ad hoc rather than deliberate, thereby sapping your enthusiasm.

Do this: Pick any endeavor in your work right now and apply these questions. Commit them to paper so they are free from your mind, allowing you to create space for new ideas to flow. Play with it and don’t worry about getting it perfect. Do this especially if you tend to avoid this kind of process.

• Who do I need to reach that matters the most?

• What do I want them to do, feel and think? What action do I want them to take?

• What is their pain point (their biggest challenge or struggle)?

• How will I know if I was successful in my efforts?

• Why am I doing this? Is it even needed?

• Does this effort or project directly support my overall goals? (And what are those goals anyway?)

• What is the one single message I want delivered? And is this the only or the best way to deliver it?

……

You’ll notice I started with two questions that refer to the people you’re trying to reach. When you frame any business action around your essential people (not all people, only those who matter most to your business), everything else flows from there. It forces you to pick sides. This can be scary and difficult. In some cases, there is more than one type of person or audience. That’s okay. Knowing who they are helps you shape the right messages.

Focusing specifically on who you serve requires bravery because it often means closing doors to keep the right ones open to the right people.

Even if you’re clear on who you serve, are you sure you know what motivates them, what they fear, what they most need? (more on this in a future post)

Your energy is precious and your product or service is valuable. You have to make sure your efforts are guided by those you want to serve most. If you can picture your prospects or customers as real live people, all of a sudden marketing to them seems less like a burden and suddenly more fun. But first you have to reveal who they are and then reveal what they need most.

…………………

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Trust How the Dots Connect

November 1, 2011 in Inspiration | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Do you plan your every step, knowing the results you want and what the destination looks and feels like? Do you work and work at something even if it doesn’t feel quite right, or because you chose that path you feel you must persevere?

Or, instead, do you coast along and hope that something appealing will snag you, or that you’ll an opportunity will drop at your feet?

Personally, neither sounds appealing, at least not all the time.

But there’s another option — a hybrid of the two. It can take some of the heat off if you feel like you fall into either of those categories. Or especially if you bounce back and forth between the two. Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve Got Something People Want

October 27, 2011 in Branding, Communication+Meaning, Marketing | Tags: , , , | 2 comments

Chances are as a business owner — especially a service-oriented business — you have something to offer beyond your core service that people want, maybe even need. But you’re not giving or selling that information or wisdom.

Think about your typical day and all the actions you take, the opinions you have, the advice you give, the troubles you troubleshoot. We all have blinds spots when it comes to what comes naturally. We don’t realize there is value in that pool of deep knowledge or interest we’ve spent years cultivating. We don’t think that sharing or selling that advice or information is a possibility. You might be thinking, “It’s just how I do my job.” Or, “Who would want to know that?” Read the rest of this entry »

Affordable In, Affordable Out

October 25, 2011 in Branding, Marketing | Tags: , , , | 4 comments

If I’m looking for any kind of service, I don’t normally use Craigslist. (Though I am looking for an expandable Danish modern dining room table.) I prefer to ask colleagues or friends for referrals. It beats a shot in the dark. And referrals are a great way to share some love within your tribe.

But after asking around for WordPress developer referrals to add to my list, I was curious to look on Craigslist. Not surprisingly, many of the listings include the word affordable.

What’s wrong with affordable? After all, aren’t we always looking for a bargain? Read the rest of this entry »

Branding Is for Those Other Folks

October 20, 2011 in Branding, Communication+Meaning | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

The word brand and its counterparts, the mind-boggling (and snooty-sounding) array of words like brand architecture, brand extension, vertical branding, diagonal branding (okay, I made that last one up) are enough to make you not want to bother.

This leads small business people to think branding is only for the Martha Stewarts and Budweisers of the world. But as overused as the word brand is, it’s the only word we have to describe the totality of what a company represents to the outside world. Read the rest of this entry »

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