Scream back at the wind

It’s really windy outside.  I'm watching a guy walking backwards to avoid the rush of cold April air in his face.

A woman pushes a double stroller, with a two-ish year old blonde haired girl and dark haired boy in it.  The wind is blowing the stroller sideways.  Their hair is flying everywhere.

The boy has a look of consternation.  He looks like he’d rather be at the doctor’s getting a shot.  His hands are bunched up in his lap.

The girl is laughing, trying unsuccessfully to get the hair out of her face, taking the boy’s hand and raising it up, screaming something at the top of her lungs.

She made me smile.

Maybe you’re smiling right now too.

Maybe she was listening to this song this morning.  It always works for me.

Don’t worry.  Be optimistic.

Optimism is the source of everything good.

It could even cut your risk for heart attack.

So the next time the wind tries to knock you back, scream back at it at the top of your lungs.

Who owns an idea?

Have you ever seen a key like this?

If so, you’ve probably been to a safety deposit box, which means you’ve probably been to a vault down in the depths of a bank at some point in your life.

Very old school. Especially in a time where people lock things up in clouds.

“Locking things up” has become a relative term in the digital age, when the single most important thing you own, like it or not, is you and your information.

But what about an idea? How do you protect that?

There’s patents, and trademarks, and lawyers. There’s Judge Judy.

But there’s really nothing to stop someone from stealing and using or repurposing your idea. Lastest case: Teller of Penn and Teller, who’s suing a Dutch magician for copying one of his most famous tricks. And selling a “how-to” video so amateurs can do it themselves.

Shame on him.

Or not?

This is the age of sharing. The era of total transparency.

Like it or not, what’s yours will very soon be others. Often, for free. Just ask the large recording labels. 

The best thing to do is create your idea and put it out there as much as possible. Blast it through all your social media networks, tell people about it on Facebook, put a TM on it too, but make sure you get credit in as big and wide a forum as possible.

Or maybe hire Teller to figure out a trick where he creates a safety deposit box for your ideas so nobody can steal them.

The most meaningful 5 minutes you'll spend today

EPIC is an organization that pairs marketing people with non-profit organizations, in an effort to provide them with a free marketing partner for a short stretch of time, called a rally. I led one of EPIC's recent rallies, partnering with the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, an amazing organization that helps support LGBTQ students in Illinois. One of the products of the partnership is this video. It features several of the incredible kids from the Alliance sharing their stories. They are courageous and inspiring, gut-wrenching and laugh-producing. Please watch it and share as much as you can. We owe it to these kids to spread their stories as far and wide as possible. Thanks.

Anybody know what this is?

Well, it’s like a phone, but it doesn’t move. You have to stand near it when you talk to somebody because it’s connected to the wall.

You can make a call where the OTHER person pays for it. Pretty cool, huh?

Does your iphone do that?

You hold that black thing with the wire coming out of the bottom in the middle, kind of level with your cheek, and you talk into the bottom part and listen with the top part.

It’s called the receiver, but if you get mad and hit someone with it, then THEY’RE the receiver.

Does your iphone do that?

Since it’s stationary, you can’t pace around while you talk. And you can’t play games or watch videos or text or Facebook or Tweet. You just have to focus on the conversation and the person you're talking to.

Does your iphone do that?

You may not have ever seen one of these things; they’re pretty rare. Maybe the tech companies will take notice and start making more of them.

You never know.

Keep your eyes peeled.

If you put an Apple logo on it, people might line up for it…

Good sense + good sensimilla = good business

There’s long copy ads, which you rarely see anymore.

Then there’s long copy labels, which don’t exist.

Other than Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap.

That crazy, lather-generating, hemp-based bar of profit-generating natural soap.

In a world where attention spans hover somewhere between micro- and milli-seconds, how does a product that has covered every nook and cranny of it’s label with an endless monologue continue to get more and more popular?

Iconoclasm. And hemp.

The former is key to the company’s philosophy, and the latter is key to the company’s product. Combined, they equal crazy success.

The full answer is in this great Inc magazine article. The long and short of it is, two brothers, one motivated by good sense and the other motivated by good sensimilla, have continued, and built on (in a big way), a legacy started by their grandfather, who penned the original rantings/musings/moral code that still appears on some of their products.

This is belief taken to great extremes, from the label to the company philosophy. If you want to learn from a company that practices what it preaches-even if the preaching is of the extraterrestrial sort—check out Dr. Bronner’s.

Should an artist try to be popular?

Most artists in the history of the world haven’t had the luxury of popularity (at least, not while they were living).

They practiced their art, with the purposes of encouraging discourse, provoking debate, getting people to look at things differently, creating art to self-express and putting their message out into the world, remuneration be damned.

Thomas Kinkade, who died last Thursday, was not among them.

He was called the most collected artist in America. It’s estimated that one of his paintings hangs in 1 in 20 U.S. homes.

He got renumerated a lot.

Dubbed “The Painter of Light,” Kinkade had a signature style that featured glowing highlights and saturated pastels. You could identify one of his “life-affirming” works from across the room. Maybe from across the street.

He had an extremely consistent style. You could call it “American populist living room friendly.” Originality was not his thing.

Or was it?

Don’t you think it takes an incredibly deep storehouse of creative energy to be as prolific as he was? Would’t it take an infinite supply of inspiration?

And what’s wrong with making lots and lots and lots of people happy every time they look at a pretty picture?

In a world already filled with debate and discourse, it’s nice to put a something out there that may not no message other than: “Hey, you: Smile.”

A perfect confluence = New Beginnings

Two reasons why Spring is my favorite time of year: Baseball and Passover.

(For the non-Jews in the room, substitute Easter for Passover. Same idea).

They both represent the same things:

Renewal.

Regeneration.

For Christians, because it involves the rising of Christ, it’s literally about rebirth.

For Cubs fans, because it involves the rising of Theo Epstein, it’s literally about rebirth.

(And the chances for a miracle are about equal for either.)

Passover/Easter and baseball mean green grass, spring air, the olfactory essence of fresh starts.

Hot Cross Buns, Maror and Matzah, and shelled, salty peanuts. The flavor of potential beginnings.

Can you smell it? Can you taste it?

Hope springs most eternally in the Spring.

Passover is here. Easter is here. Baseball is here. All starting at the same time this year. A magical perfect confluence.

Think about your new beginnings. What you might take up that you’ve been meaning to do.

Pluck that hanging chad of a to-do at the bottom of your list. Go out to a sunny spot, bless it with some of your best thinking, and give it the chance of a new beginning.

Get all Theo Epstein on it and see what happens.

Just remember, Spring planting takes time to grow.

Just ask Theo.

Everything I learned, I learned from the movies

OK, Audrey Hepburn said that. She was one smart cookie. And cute as a button. I don’t know if she was cuter in those stretchy black jazz pants in Funny Face or as the young princess in Roman Holiday or as Eliza Doolittle or Holly Golightly or Sabrina in Sabrina.

But I digress.

Movies are the single greatest form of escape and best entertainment buy in the world. Great writing sizzles and great acting dazzles. Powerful images and beautiful music take your breath away.

100 years ago and today, movies have enthralled audiences with wonder and originality. So how much does it suck when a veteran movie executive says this:

“There’s nothing new under the sun.”

Ouch.

The quote was in reference to the recent Hollywood trend of remaking movies that first hit the screens decades ago, like RoboCop and Dirty Dancing. Bruce Willis fans, start lining up: Die Hard 5 is coming. And no, it’s not the story of terrorists who take over an assisted living community, prompting John McClain to toss aside his walker and spring into action.

This isn’t a statement about a lack of creativity. This is a sad statement about the film industry’s lack of willingness to stand up for creativity.

It reminds me of a boss I once had in advertising who liked to say, “There are only seven original ideas in the world.”

Obviously, there were none in his head.

But we know better. Originality is everywhere, even if Hollywood won’t invest in it.

Creativity is around every corner, so don’t stop chasing it down.

There’s a lot of New under the sun, and there’s about 456,208 more original ideas waiting to be sprung, many of them from your own brain.

Doesn’t mean I don’t want to see Die Hard 5.

Reverse Inspiration

I have seen the faces of reverse mentoring. They are different colors and shapes and sizes and they are all awesome.

I love them in all of their happily determined, purposeful, “Why not?” caution-to-the-wind-ness.

They are out to do things that generations ago would’ve taken meetings and rallies and marches. Now it takes an idea and passion (and lots of friends and followers).

And the coolest thing of all is, they’re doing it because of something they feel deep inside. Not because IPO’s or WSJ hedcut portraits are beckoning. They have deep conviction that what they’re doing is right, and that alone could explain their success. Their incredibly hard work and perseverance doesn’t hurt.

My reverse mentors are born entrepreneurs. They act first and think later, then act again then think some more. Then they do, do, and do some more.

They do a lot of doing.

And the stuff they do is amazing.

Someday soon, when I get younger, I’m going to be like them.