something unique: in an non-unique world

Remember to find time for yourself. Creativity dies when we live our lives under someone elses whip; if you enjoy the 'taskmaster' of traditional office life then you're likely not creative (for now, you could be).

We all need time to breath and time to rejuvenate; if we don't exercise our minds we're not going to go anywhere. Try to find five things in your life that you're not in control of that you should be. Maybe you spend too much time obsessively cleaning, maybe you're working too much. Find them; one by one eliminate them from your life for as long as you can.

Your Time is Your Time. Don't forget it. Find value in your time, meditate, draw, write or as I've enjoyed: go out and take photos or travel.

Otherwise at the end of the week you've lived for the weekend under someone's rules. Money won't buy you happiness, I'm sure not the first one to tell you that...so take it to heart and learn to set boundaries.

It was a beautiful morning today: I could hardly see where I was going.

Too often in this world we’re surrounded by things that tell us where to go; sure, even with ¼ mile visibility I knew where I was going, I’ve driven to work many times! Yet still, there’s wonderment behind feeling out of control, like we could get lost if we wanted to.

Read More...

Read the rest of this post »

Why bother?

Everyone's thought this at least once in their life (don't lie, we've all been there).

There reaches a point of frustration when we have to ask ourselves “why bother to ___”. Honestly, there’s no answer that works for every person. I’ve written before about motivation but this is a different enough concept to matter. Motivation exists when we want to do ___ but have to trick ourselves to do it: we’re liars, and we’re lying to ourselves. (By the way, insert anything you find relevant into the ___ space, in case you hadn’t caught on).

So why bother? Is it because there’s a light at the end of the tunnel or some cliché that will make this post seem relevant? No. It’s because every day we have to fight through our respective tunnels and turn the lights on ourselves. Without those lights, no one would want to follow us. You wanna know what? People want to follow you. They want you to be a Genuine Storyteller and they want you to light the end of the tunnel so they can find their own way.

Read the rest of this post »

 If you spend more than ten minutes in an office, you're likely to hear it: "Manage Expectations". What a ridiculous term.

What expectations? Why are we managing them? This is a buzzword that makes the office feel important, but it's also something deeper, and less innocent. It's a philosophical mindset of how we have to behave in the office, in the home, in the church, in the street...everywhere. We're constantly living up to someone elses' expectations and managing the process; chances are, you're sick of it.

The next time you hear "Managing Expectations", just stop, wait, and think before you try to manage anything.

Tom must have been told this too much as a kid, while he's chasing love down the rabbit hole he's endlessly managing expectations. He'll  think "Am I her type? Should I behave more like that other guy she's with?" All the while missing out on who he really is.

Bob spends his time in the office working for an archaic principle; the client is always right. "Fear the client, and manage their expectations", it's basically shouted from the rooftops at people like Bob. All the while he'll wear his Tired Suit and a Tired Smile; because the client is always right, and that means that he's always wrong - it's killing him.

So why run in circles chasing our tails just to 'manage expectations'? Bob needs to know that he'll never find life; love will find him. Tom needs to know that the client has a valid point more often than not; but also that the client isn't always right. There are times to stand up and be who you are, and those times are becoming more and more crucial to our daily lives.

As we become more and more interconnected through social media and digital communication we lose the genuine personality that people crave. Online dating robs us of our souls, we're now too awkward to walk up to the stranger and start talking. Rapid communication in the workforce removes us from personal conversations and sets us trapped at our desks. The easiest way to counteract this is to Burn the Box and to stop Managing Expectations.

Try becoming a Genuine Storyteller (©). Instead of working to tell the story that people want to hear, work to tell them the story that you have to tell. The difference? Well, Tom will attract his soulmate through his stories: turns out he has a love for life and all worth living - he's a Happy Human. Bob, will stand tall in the office and realize that he's not just needed - he's irreplaceable; as he builds better relationships with Genuine Stories, he'll realize that wearing a Tired Suit to work is just as sad as trying to Manage Expectations.

Click to view large

Download this gallery (ZIP, undefined KB)

After all, the only expectations we can truly manage are our own; isn't that enough work?

Motivation is a tricky thing. People spend endless amounts of money on books and classes that will ‘teach the secrets’ of motivation…but wait a minute…we’re missing something here.

Clearly, these people feel like they have no motivation (chances are, you’re somewhat the same). Realistically, they all rolled out of bed, they all put on their shoes (hopefully) and they all made it to the bookstore or to the motivation seminar – all the while looking for that magical solution.

So something is working here and working rather well, but there’s a disconnect between perceived motivation and actualization. Here I have to stop and say, “really?”, “really?” I become curious about where the gap between ‘just enough motivation’ connects to ‘motivated to get motivated’. Surely there’s a faster way to get there? Simple physics argues the fastest way between two points is a straight line; more complex (but still simple) physics allow us to bend the two points together, and to skip the road in the middle – point being, there’s gotta be a shortcut.

It seems that people get too caught up in ‘self-help’ and ‘motivation’ and ignore their goal of actualization. Let’s go back to my buddies Bob and Tom (If you don’t get the reference, you need to read this post).

Bob will wallow around trying to find a way to get over the missed opportunity in his love life, and he’ll look for any self-help book to get him there (Chicken Broth for the Broken Heart, Billy Ray’s Ache Breaky Heart, etc.).

Tom’s looking for the sure-shot with his career. He’s read 8 Successful Tips for Success, How to Win at Life and even the famous “How to Get Rich, and get to Fire People on TV.” (Let’s see if you get my humor here folks.)

For both Bob and Tom - they're missing a pretty crucial element. They're already motivated!

Gradual steps will get you there. Start writing down what you want to achieve and add ways to get there.

Bob will need to get out more, join a club, socialize, or just get a cute puppy.

Tom needs to stop hoping to win the career lottery, and to start building a list of pros and cons about things in his professional life. Chances are, there's plenty of things dragging him down (negative workforce perhaps?). That'll be an upcoming blog post...

So how about you? Why did you get out of bed? What's your goal in life, heck, what's your goal for the week? Are you ready to start Building a Conscious Ladder (© Andrew Rushmore) towards success?

It's easier than you think. Start Climbing!

I'm tired of hearing "Think outside this box." It's old. It's cliché. It's time to move on.

And please, for the life of me, stop putting it on on your business cards; we've all seen the clever renditions: thinking outside the square, think outside the bun, outside the cardboard, etc. All these people are proving is that they can reinvent a cliché.

I'm proposing a new solution: Burn the Box (© Andrew Rushmore)  (Credit to Baron Von Photo for the picture below).

Destroy all notions of thinking inside or outside a box in your mind - they're put there to distract you from who you are.Start thinking independently; remember that you don't just have to think outside the box, you have to get the heck out of the box (it's burning after all).

Realistically, our parents, parents were told to stay in the box - it was the smart decision. Then they had kids, and our parents started the hippie revolution which began pushing the boundaries and trying to break out of the box they had been trapped in. As the Web took off, people definitely jumped out of the box and thought differently....but now too many people are clinging to that shell of an identity ("think outside the box").

Everything is cyclical - what's new becomes old, and eventually what's old will become new...but for now, burn the box. When you don't have to think so two-dimensional (outside or inside the box) you'll find that you really can do anything with your life, with your business, with your relationships, etc. Ultimately,  what you do is your decision.

Me? I'm going to burn the box and buck the system. Why? I  want to be a Happy Human and built a better future for myself and everyone I care about. Join me?

You can borrow my lighter.

Too often people wallow around looking for a solution for their regret to magically appear - when actually they should be out acting trying to make a better tomorrow for themselves. This is a bold line to open with...but go with me.

For this argument I'll use two analogies: Tom, the lovesick fool, and Bob, the naive entrepreneur waiting for his miracle grant.

Tom met the love of his life just a year too late. Without getting into the details (they don't matter really for this argument), we know that Tom is a helpless unrequited romantic who believes that he'll never get over the person he met.

Bob on the other hand is much more pragmatic. He only believes in work, work and more work in an endless attempt to chase profit.

What Tom is missing, is that regardless of the connection he had to that women – he has to move on, and there’s always love to be found; in the meantime he’s lost and needs a passion aside from this unrequited love.

What Bob is missing, is that work for profit is a fool’s errand. He should be looking to find his lost love, finding what makes him a passionate fool. It’s only then that his company will take off.

People don’t give a care about what we do to win their affection or prove our business. They care about who we are, and why we’re doing what we do.

Maybe Tom needs to go tell the women he’s pining over why he fell in love with her, and stop being a hopeless romantic. Maybe Bob needs to go tell the world why he chooses to work so hard, and stop getting tunnel vision about his goals.

Maybe I’m Tom and Bob. Maybe I was. Maybe you are. Maybe you were. Maybe, we are all lost in an attempt to prove our capabilities instead of getting saved by that last ditch romantic effort to save a company, or an unobtainable love in a fairytale.

It’s time we got some childlike wonder back people: it’s time to do because we do, not because we have to prove ourselves.Remember there's no magical solution, unless you, yourself, are magical. :)

It's disappointing to look at the strategy behind such a brilliant campaign as the one Nature Valley is running, and see that they're missing out on such opportunities.

The company donated $366,857 to the National Parks Conservation Association, and is looking to match $250,000 more. With an integrated social nature, the site uses YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter to promote the cause - but there's an interesting (but not well raised) point by Redditor's here. With cost of postage and the cost of the Tree's needed to mail these products in - there's a gaping missed opportunity for General Mills.

Figure 1 ream (500 sheets) uses 6% of a tree (and those add up quickly!) [Source] and you can assume that 500 envelopes are the near equivalent.

If we assume General Mills raises $250,000 from entirely different people, then you're looking for over 2 million envelopes to be sent in. So that’s 150,000 trees?

I’m not a conservation expert – I’m addressing the concerns raised by consumers on Reddit.com – if they noticed it, chances are others will as well. To be fair, the argument was raised that people may send in multiple wrappers. Even if every consumer bought one 12 pack and sent all the wrappers in: 200,000 plus consumers would be using envelopes. (If my math is wrong, please let me know).

So what’s my point? It’s not an angry rant at a company; it’s a plea for marketers to look for quick, affordable innovations such as QR codes, text messaging marketing, etc. If I was really going to analyze the conservative nature of the campaign I’d also calculate the energy needed to use a smartphone to use a QR code – but I think at this point people know what I’m going for.

The web is a living organism, stop treating your campaigns like they just need the biggest social sites in the strategy – every strategy will be different, and it’s going to prevent what I call Social Media Blindness: the point of the adaption curve where the masses have moved from the tipping point of brand/service adoption – past the point of mass clustering around the mean to the loss of adaption.

That’s my take.

AT&T is still striking back at the "Big-Red" commercials, and I'm loving the show.

Visually, covering well known landmarks extends their campaign across the US; it fits their copy of:

""AT&T covers 97% of all Americans"

I'm just glad someone took the highroad at the end of this war and went with nice soothing music, and pleasing visuals (that someone was BBDO, representing AT&T)

However, as I am a fan, I do wish they didn't have to use the color orange in the commercial. Maybe that's because I've seen so many full-right buys/media spend for billboards in my area telling people about the recent AT&T buy of Centennial wireless. In the days of digital billboards and rapidly changing media, a consumer can get sick of the same color treatment day-after-day for over a month.

Here's the commercial I've been talking about. Music is: From the Morning, Nick Drake. Buy him on Amazon MP3!

AT&T: Blanket Commercial

If you recall, my last post regarded execution Biggby used on their coffee cups in relation to their B-Happy branding.

Biggby Bob (aka Bob Fish) the CEO of Biggby Coffee stopped by my blog to give some great feedback; from it, I got insight into the company's branding direction - not only is it smart thinking, but it has to be pretty cool from a consumers point of view as well.

• Have fun
• B-Happy
• Make friends
• Love people

This type of thinking is becoming increasingly crucial when communicating in the B2C realm of marketing and advertising. With so many messages almost literally being thrown at consumers, they tend to take a step back to listen when they hear a unique voice that is speaking to them, as individuals.

Enter the realm of relationship marketing; something that Biggby's seems to be doing pretty well. Relationship marketing takes focus away from the four P's of marketing, which have historically had a dominant focus/goal on sales and bottom line revenue, and puts emphasis onto customer retention and satisfaction. Increasingly, it is becoming more than just customer retention and satisfaction - you can thank social media for that. Now relationship marketing allows company's to show their spirit, their innovation and their personalities from within.

Let's think deeper about why using the persona of 'Biggby Bob' as a brand champion is a good idea. Now that you know the marketing direction of the company, it's clear to see how 'making friends' 'love(ing) people' and 'B(ing)-Happy' all fit into relationship marketing.

When you buy 'name brand' coffee, we all do the 'label turn'; but what if a company's brand had such a personal, emotional connection, that it allowed the 'logo turn' to be casual, and not intentional. Maybe consumers would be turning the label towards themselves and not outwards to show it off - hey, it could happen.

Something works, if it's the hopping frogs on the cup telling consumers to B-Hoppy, or  the fact that the company's CEO isn't a 'suit'  (he's a person, who's willing to talk about his company, his passion, and why he thinks you should buy coffee). Whatever it is, Biggby's is doing a great job with relationship marketing.

This topic is a huge passion of mine, I'd love to revisit it soon - I have a few more companies that deserve praise.

PS: Where's Biggby Bob? Find him at his own blog - Here. 

Have fun with their company,

"If you have something BIGGBYesque to share please send it to blogger@biggby.com and @biggbyjedi and I will give it a review...and most likely POST it!"

Looks like they'll give you free coffee too, so give em an email!

EDIT:

Glad to hear back from Bob!