As news of the tragedy in Colorado spreads across the country, so too do the opinions.  Throughout the day today, from the airwaves to the coffee shops to the political rallies, the conversations will be the same.  But the similarity in the conversation won’t be part of a shared unity, but in the familiar divisiveness that is crippling our nation. 

“The guns are to blame.”

“It’s video games.”

“Guns don’t kill people, crazy people kill people.”

All of us, myself included, so entrenched in what we think is right, that we are unable to work together to find solutions to the systemic violence that is killing our friends, our families, and our children.  

“Nobody’s right, if everybody’s wrong.”

When you read the quote above, did you hear the song?  It is from Buffalo Springfield’s famous anti-war anthem.  Even if you didn’t recognize it, you no doubt have heard it.   Classic rock stations in every city in America keep it on regular rotation and it has been featured in films such as “Forrest Gump.”  

But it wouldn’t have been unheard of for you not to recognize it.  Because that’s what we do when we hear something we think we already know.  We gloss over it, tune it out, let it become part of the background noise.  

And that isn’t working, is it?  

Commit to being part of the solution.  Accept that you don’t have all the answers and that the only way we can solve this problem is by working with people with whom we disagree.  Commit to listening and let the coming days be an opportunity to discover how you can make a difference.  

Lyrics to “For What Its Worth” by Buffalo Springfield 

There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, now, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

One of the upsides of have a frenetic mind is there is never a shortage of ideas.  The downside is that you can’t develop all of them.  One of the most important take aways that I got from David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done, is the importance of dealing with the ideas you don’t have time to develop so they don’t linger.  The problem, of course, is ideas are like lottery tickets.  The odds of it being THE BIG ONE are slim, but that doesn’t make them any easier to let go.  Nevertheless, this one I have to let go of because even if someone isn’t already doing it, I don’t have time for it.  Just time enough to catch it and set it free. 

Background

In an earlier post, I linked to a video from one of my favorite films.  By coincidence, if you watched the clip, YouTube automatically played the next clip on my account, the famous “tarring the road” scene from Cool Hand Luke.  I suspect when I went back an updated the original post with that information, the Studio that owns the rights to the film got pinged - more than likely via an alert they have set up for their film titles.  Regardless of the fact I had uploaded the clip awhile back, the next time I got online, I had a message from YouTube threatening to disable my account, image below. I was unable to access all the functions on YouTube until I had watched a video on copyright infringement and took a pop quiz.  (PASSED, bitches!) 

I get copyright, but there is a huge missed opportunity here.  Cool Hand Luke is not The Avengers, so anyone posting clips from it is doing everyone who owns a piece of the film a huge favor.  By posting and sharing clips from the movie, end-users are keeping the film “top of mind.”  Which means more people are being exposed to the film and will either seek it out to see it again or see it for the first time.  Ironically, my daughter and I saw The Avengers last Friday where we saw previews for Cinemark’s Classic Series featuring…..Cool Hand Luke.

Using the old media adage that a consumer needs to be exposed to a promo multiple times before they take action, wouldn’t the studio benefit from loosening their restrictions?  Absolutely, but “Studio” is just another name for big corporation so unless you can show how any new venture is going to improve the bottom line, don’t bother.  So here is the solution.

The Idea

Create a scene sharing platform where all the most memorable scenes from every movie made before 1980 are featured.  Empower users with the tools to share and embed the scenes.  Sell ad space on the player and pull in data from viewers browsers so that they details about where they can see the full film.  For instance, I have a Netflix account, thus a Netflix icon would appear.  Data mine usage to plug merchandise, build fan clubs, whatever your heart desires.  Time for the Studios to grab the long tail and for me to get back to work. 

The Cheesecake Factory isn’t one of our regular haunts, but it was our anniversary so getting out of the house and away from unpacking moving boxes on Memorial Day made it an easy choice.  Plus, Kylie and Sean were wildly entertaining on the ride over, so we arrived a happy lot.  

We pulled into the parking lot behind a slow moving Honda which forced me to deviate from my normal “quick park” M.O.  That’s when I noticed a dozen or so Harley Davidson’s parked throughout the lot.  (“Notice” is a weak description, but until someone can coin a descriptor for that thing you do when you think you found a open spot and you start to turn in and at the last second realize a motorcycle is in the spot, I’m sticking with it.)

“Riding your Harley to The Cheesecake Factory, now that’s gangsta,”  I mused as we herded the kids toward the behemoth entrance.  

“What’s so strange about that?” Rhonda replied. 

She had a point, or rather, I didn’t have one.  But it was none the less odd, at least to me.  Because these weren’t your run of the mill weekend warrior Harley riders.  These guys, and their “old ladies” were legit.  Big ass beards and that thick, road weary skin that only a guy that rides five, six days a week can earn.  There was something to this but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.  

Later that evening, I came across the video below, another in the excellent series of animated talks produced by RSA.  The audio is from a talk given by Manuel Lima, senior UX design lead at Microsoft Bing.  In it, he explores the power of network visualization to enhance one’s perspective on how to understand the modern world.  Check it out and think about how it can help explain how a group of hardcore Harley riders are less out of place than they may seem at The Cheesecake Factory. 

Pretty cool, right?  Apart from the amazing animation, Lima’s commentary was what I like to refer to as “obvious brilliance.”  The type of discovery or change in perspective that once you’ve heard it seems obvious in hindsight.   But the fact that someone was able to pin down that thing that was right in front of our faces this whole time makes it nonetheless brilliant.  

The main takeaway for me, in regards to my Harley/Cheesecake Factory brand disconnect, was it highlighted that my perception of brand identity was flawed; or at a minimum, outdated.  For me, brand loyalty in many ways mirrored the hierarchal structure Lima describes at the beginning of his talk with the most fanatic brand loyalist being at the top.  Which positions brand purity, if you will, as a very singular endeavor.  Meaning, as your connection and identification with a particular brand intensifies, the opportunities for self-identification via additional brands decreases.  Or to put it more simply, hardcore Harley mofo’s do not eat at The Cheesecake Factory.  

However, based on Mr. Lima’s talk, we can visualize that for even the most loyal Harley fanatic, brand identity is not only plural, it can sometimes connect to other networks that we may have previously perceived to be part of a different universe.  Certainly, in and of itself, the concept of a brand network isn’t revolutionary.  Hipsters ride Fixies and drink PBR.  J Crew’ers cross pollinate with the LL Bean set.  But from a utilitarian perspective, investigating how far personal or company brand network extends could prove to be quite advantageous. 

In The Start-Up of You, Reid Hoffman, the founder of Linked-In and co-author, Ben Casnocha, revisit “The Strength of Weak Ties.”  In 1973, when sociologist Mark Granovetter asked a random sample of Boston professionals who had just switched jobs how they found their new job, 55% found it through a contact they saw occasionally and 27% via a contact they saw rarely.  While only 16% found their new job through a contact they saw often.   

Granovetter summed up his conclusion in a paper appropriately called “The Strength of Weak Ties”: The friends you don’t know very well are the ones who refer winning jobs. Granovetter accounts for this result by explaining that social cliques, which are groups of people who have something in common, often limit your exposure to wildly new experiences, opportunities, and information. 

Which brings us back to the hardcore Harley riding, Cheesecake eating mofo’s that kicked off our discussion.  As Granovetter notes in his study, “weak ties in and of themselves are not especially valuable; what is valuable is the breadth and reach of your network.”   Thus from a brand development and management perspective, as well as general business strategy, the entire notion that with enough quantitative and qualitative research you can define exactly WHO your customers are, becomes less definitive.  Certainly, all brands are going to have their sweet spot.  But for companies looking to expand their breadth and bottom line, re-evaluating your brand’s network with this new intel might mean you can have your Cheesecake and Harley, too.  

The longshoreman philosopher has had a big influence on the way I approach things.  My father introduced me to his books.  Some of his commentary is out of step with modern times, but a lot of what he wrote about is still completely relevant today.  

Still looking to find parts 4 & 5.  

Update:  Watching these clips reminds me why Hoffer’s work resonates with me.  He was a self-taught writer/philosopher, but the entire time he was thinking and writing he was a laborer.  A “common man”.  But what Hoffer understood, because he lived it, is that the callused hands of the working man, are not as many people assume, an impediment to enlightened thinking.  They are an asset.  

The first chapter of “The Start-Up of You” has a section that describes the importance of knowing what your soft assets are:

Soft assets are things you can’t trade directly for money.  They’re the intangible contributors to your success; the knowledge and information in your brain; professional connections and the trust you’ve built up with them; skills you’ve mastered; you’re reputation and personal brand; your strengths (things that come easily to you).

I spent some time reflecting on it and reached out to a few friends and peers to get their input.  One aspect of my work that I would like to continue to develop is around my ability to help clients recognize and define the true essence of their brand.  Very cerebral, I know.  But it has gotten me on this train of thought around the word “Authentic.”  

Advertising, in its purest sense, is an invitation to do business. So back in the day, like way, way, way, back in the day, when people sold their goods and services in the town square, the way they advertised was with a smile.  All the interactions were face-to-face and “brands” were really the personalities of the people.  As societies advanced and improved so did the ability of businesses to expand their reach.  So eventually, almost all of the interpersonal interaction had all but disappeared.  However, the Internet has changed all that.  The two way communication that was lost (some might argue exploited during the “Mad Men” mass media era) is undergoing massive change.  The Internet has enabled a new variety of two way communication.  Many brands were naturally scared of the transparency the Internet created.  Think about it, if you had built up a enormous company where your communication with your customers wasn’t face-to-face, but conducted through focus groups or beamed out in a blitzkrieg of advertising, you might be a little hesitant to talk to the people you have been selling to all these years.  

Which brings us back to this idea of “Authentic.”  The companies that are going to thrive in this new dynamic are ones that are comfortable with who they are as individuals and as an organization.  The ability to hide behind slick advertising and catchy jingles is not going to work.  This doesn’t signal the end of advertising, not at all.  Because, advertising in its purest sense is an invitation to do business which means that those companies that can adapt to this new reality or better yet, embrace it, will have the most success.  And authenticity, or being authentic is the cornerstone for success in this new dynamic. 

As you can see from the photo above I have been playing around with some designs around the word, “Authentic.”  Being able to toy with what a concept looks like helps me explore the potential of where it can go (then I hit up one of my many talented design friends to do a real logo :)   Could it be a company name?  Maybe.  It would be good to hear your perspective on that.  But it definitely is going to be a core value of anything that I do moving forward. Pride & Authenticity is a pretty good place to start.  

What do you think? 

As I mentioned in the previous post, I’m on this sort of open-source, collaborative mission to discover how to combine what I can do, with what people will actually pay me to do.  While I don’t know where this will end up, I do know where it is going to start - with pride.  

Although it is an old movie, one of the best commentaries I have ever heard on pride comes from “Executive Suite.”  The film was directed by Robert Wise and starred William Holden as a furniture designer who is fighting for the heart and soul of the Tredway Corporation after it’s once inspirational leader dies.  In the final scene, embedded below, Holden delivers an epic speech that contains one of my all time favorite quotes.

“You can’t make men work for money alone, you starve their souls when you try it.”  That’s good stuff.

Watch it and let me know what you think.

Added Bonus!  If you watch the whole thing, it leads right into one of my other favorite scenes, the tarring the road scene from Cool Hand Luke.  

UPDATE: Shortly after this post I received a notice from YouTube stating that I had been dinged for copyright infringement for posting the Cool Hand Luke scene.  Studios just don’t get it.  More on this later…. 

There has been a lot of attention paid to the notion of developing one’s “personal brand.”  Additionally, Simon Sinek’s video about leading with the “Why” and Reid Hoffman’s book, The Start Up of You have been influencing my approach to developing brands for clients.  Now it is time for me to develop my own brand.  

The traditional approach would be to conduct this type of self-evaluation and professional development in seclusion.  I believe that is the wrong approach.  While Steve Jobs encourages people to find what they are passionate about and do that, as Reid Hoffman notes, the reality is slightly different.  The true objective is to merge what you are really passionate about with a need in the marketplace.  So the purpose of turning this “personal evolution” into a open forum in which I am encouraging you to participate is so you can help me discover what it is that I can do for you or for someone you know or something we can create together. 

I have no idea where this will end up, but it is going to be hella fun.  Check in often, don’t hold back, and let me know if there is something I can do for you.

Let’s roll.  

Was having some technical difficulties with tumblr which forced me to reboot.  You will be seeing some duplicate posts.