s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g BEE.

I’m quite excited – I’m going to see Putnam County Spelling Bee tonight at the Hult.  I really do love this show – I saw it a few times it came to Portland last and…why do I love it?  Well, I learned how to spell a number of new words: acouchi, mohel, and syzygy.  I am also a fan of anything that offers some sort of cultural insight – this show being a prime example.  It’s funny, it’s quirky, it’s …educational! What more could one want?

Anyway, it’s tonight and tomorrow at the Hult – if you’ve got a free evening…go see Spelling Bee! (and use this to get discount tickets, always a good thing!)

storytelling of a T-Rex fraternity dissapointment

While in Seattle this past weekend, I found myself in FAO Schwartz.  The salesman, I quickly learned, was a MASTER storyteller.  Apparently, he’s also his family’s historian and maintains all the family records and stories because he’s “excellent with remembering names and dates.”  He told me a handful, maybe in case I didn’t believe him.

Anyway, after a few stories were told, I asked to tape him.  Normally when I ask this, people become camera shy.  But oh no. Not this guy.  It was almost as if he had been waiting for his big break for years.  Without further ado, I present the story of T-Rex fraternity disappointment:

thinking about agency models, my future, collaboration + orchestras

Part A:  I suspect I am joining a number of soon-to-be college grads in my quest to figure out what the heck I will be / desire to be doing with my future.

Part B: The recent trip I just took to New York with the ad. program for the one show helped me reach a number of conclusions regarding my future career.  At least for now – I’m sure plans / ideas / mentalities will change with time.

Part C:  Both my high school orchestra and choir recently won their respective state competitions. best of the northwest. the overall program won a grammy signature school title. again. freaking awesome.

So, adding all these parts together, I’ve been thinking of where I want to end up post-school and why I want to be there.

The wonderful thing about choir/orchestra, was that we were all there around a common idea: music. Not competition, but making music because that was our passion. Coincidentally…or I’m fairly confident, not so coincidentally at all, the reason the Sprague music program is so strong is because it’s not based around winning, it’s based around a community and a passion for the “work” aka, creating music.

Reading all the articles in the paper of the recent successes, it’s interesting to note the quotations of the students – this is a huge window into the core structure of the program:

“He [Mr. C, choir director] told us this morning to make it our goal not to impress but to inspire.”

“”Mr. C’s” advice: “Make the audience feel something.”

Possible one of my favorite cheesy (or maybe “feel good” is a better term?) Mr. C quotations – but honestly so entirely true – not just for music, but for life: “The voice is located halfway between the brain and the heart. Use them both.”

Of course the Sprague music program is competitive; however, competition was never and appears to still not be the primary motive of what they’re doing.  Mr. C and Mr. Nelson always said – we’re not in this to compete, and if that’s the case, we’re doing this for the wrong reasons. HOWEVER, if we are in this competition – we’re going to compete to win.

Huge. Huge. Huge. Doing things for the right reasons. Having a purpose. Common goal. Camaraderie. This stuff can’t be found in many places.

…so…transferring this to my current life…the struggle I have with working in an agency is that it’s very competitive…but not necessarily around that common core point like I spoke of above (categorizing all agencies together, I know there are a million various agency models, I know agencies w this structure exist).

Not to say this is bad. Just maybe not for me, at least at this point. I want to collaborate with a team around a common shared goal/idea/passion…such as in an orchestra or choir.  Of course there are commonalities in agencies…clearly.  But it’s not the same. Clients/accounts are consistently changing…I’m not sure I could work for an agency on an account I wasn’t passionate about.

And maybe this means I need to look into client side work…or maybe I really need to join an orchestra for awhile. Or maybe this is all just food for thought.

…while I’m lauding my past high school’s music program, check out this year’s Camerata at State:

being indispensable

Once upon a time, Deb said: “We’re all creative.” This means, the creatives are creative. The planners are creative. The copywriters are creative. AND last but certainly not least the account people are creative.

One phrase I’ve become familiar with from working with business school people this year is: ” . . . now I’m not the creative, BUT…..yadda yadda yadda . . . “

The video posted below is why I love Kristin. Especially in a time where the economy is quite delicate, being indispensable is (in Deb lingo) HUGE!!

Kristin is a “recovering accounting major” business school student, and account manager in AHA, yet she still manages to do “creative” things.

Being indispensable doesn’t mean you have to be an expert in everything. However, in my opinion, taking the initiative to try things outside your area of specialty…yup, that’s huge.

Here’s to Kristin’s video! (=

A new approach to social media? We call it Ecology.

Twitter prompts “What are you doing?” Facebook asks “What’s on your mind?” Should we be surprised that people produce a stream of self-absorbed updates?

We are more connected than ever, but are we really connecting?  What if we could organize people around ideas, rather than a stream of personal updates?

We call it Ecology.  Ecology transforms the current concept of social media from a one-way model of personal projection and shallow conversation into a two-way platform of idea generation and worthwhile conversation.  The Ecology model uses a tree metaphor to demonstrate a more effective social media structure that is more organic, visual, and organized.

This is a work in progress Ashly, Michael and I have been developing this past year.  What do you think? Feedback? Ideas?

Here’s a link to our Ecology book.

Here’s the video: