- Posts tagged sensibilities
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good in, good out
We're pitching tomorrow. I'm not going to Joe-Namath-it and guarantee a victory, but the quality of our work will speak for itself. Our team did an amazing job of keeping it reals and building together. I'm proud to say that our approach shows up in the product. Thanks guys for proving once more that good people can create inspired work... sans BS.
Here's to the shitberg-free chase. Or in the immortal words of Mike Rook, "Let's go."
(I'll update this blog with pitch results once the dust settles.)
Shaqtastic way of life
Shaq retired from playing basketball last week. He's leaving the game he made better by just being himself. I've always been a fan of Shaq. Not so much for his basketball stylings, since watching him play was like watching an Atari 2600 game. Same animation every time. Slam. No, not for his playing. I'm a fan of the way he looks at the world. Simply put:
1) Don't take yourself so seriously.
2) Enjoy the ride.
I have an offer.
PFD is built on an underdog mentality.
It's tough to think of ourselves as "the shit" when we're always striving to fidget with something. We're like this because we're constantly challenging ourselves to stay hungry, raise standards, and innovate.
Our culture is Bad News Bears-like by design, reflected in our recruitment philosophy. We like the outsiders, the ones who never got the shot they deserve because they were undervalued or overlooked. Being an underdog my whole life, I know there are inherent qualities in underdogs that make us click tighter as a team. Maybe we need each other more. Or maybe it's something else that lies between not having a sense of entitlement and having untapped potential.
In any case, here's my offer.
April in 4 pictures
PICTURE #1
Judy Grunstrom (left)
PFD added a rock star to our eccentric family. We're excited to name award-winning brand strategist and syndicated blogger, Judy Grunstrom, as our new Director of Business Development. Besides being as smart & curious as 3x Judies, our Judy is also a straight shooter, which tells me we're going to get along just fine.
failure in success
Professionally, I've never been more excited, productive, stressed and inspired - all at the same time. In the midst of all this gooey advertising success, I've also had one if my biggest failures. Last week, my father had prostate surgery in upstate New York. At the time, I was busy with work (what's new?). So I chose to stay in Minneapolis instead of going home. Dad ended up suffering bad complications, putting my mom, sister and him through a painful hell while I was making ads. When he needed me most, I wasn't there.
From an early age, Dad taught me the character I have in life is practice for the character I'll have at work. He said if I'm respectful and hard working, I would get far in my career. As usual, he was right. Where I went wrong was believing once I was in my career, that life was still practice for work. It's not. My failure was not looking beyond a moment in time.
I'd eat Mike Tyson's children to get it.
rule of 20
Preschool - Kindergarden: Saigon, Vietnam
Kindergarten - 1st grade: Iowa City, IA
1st grade - 1.5 grade: Orange County, CA
1.5 grade - 2nd grade: somewhere else Orange County, CA
2nd grade - 2.5 grade: New Orleans, LA
2.5 grade - 3.5 grade: somewhere else New Orleans, LA
3.5 grade - 4th grade: Chicago, IL
5th grade - 6th grade: Perrysburg, NY
6th grade - 7.5 grade: Mt. Vernon, NY
7.5 grade - 9th grade: Buffalo, NY
Due to my father's vocation, which I still think has something to do with the witness relocation program, we moved around a lot through my wonder years. In doing so, I learned most people aren't hard to understand. Regardless of where we're from, we're more alike than different. At our core, I kinda believe we're all squeshy, smelly, flawed, lonely, hopeful, desperate, insecure and very, very good.
WTF is magic?
Minus my brief love affair with David Copperfield's magic mojo in the 80's, I've never been a fan of magic. To me, most magicians are clones of each other. You see one, you've seen them all. Then there's David Blaine. Admittedly, I got caught up with the Blaine phenomenon in the beginning, then hated on him later on. Mostly because I didn't think what he did was magic, I thought they were PR stunts. But after watching his TED piece (below), I see now that I hated on him because he didn't follow my conventional rules of what magic was (lame). Instead, he's pioneering a new way to look at what magic can be (I can't believe I just said that about David Blaine). The TED piece is a little long, but it's worth it to see how humble Blaine comes off and how dedicated he is to pushing his own limit. I admire this kind of crazy passion and believe it translates into any business. Or better yet - any quest.
(If you can't wait for it, Blaine shares his answer @ 19:38.)
sometimes more is more
NOTE TO CREATIVE SELF: Stay young at heart and make prototypes. Lots of them.
presentation boot camp
We're doing another epic round of presentation classes. In doing these classes, we hope to accomplish 3 things:
1) Find out who's ready to work on new business pitches.
2) Demonstrate that selling horrible work is horrible.
3) Learn to be more confident and authentic in presentations, giving us a better chance to sell great ideas (far away from #2).
Speaking of #2, that's where we begin with our first assignment. Shitty advertising. With only 5 minutes to prepare, Travis, Matt, Marilyn and Michael had to pitch this turd of an idea to our fake client - Eagle Insurance.
Below are videos from their first quickfire pitch. We used these vids to work on our team's body language and pacing. Preso-wise, the only info we gave them on Eagle Insurance was the youtube video. That means they're pulling most of this shit out of their arses. Enjoy...
TRAVIS (aka "CREEPY EYES") - ART DIRECTOR
MATT (aka "599" or "FOLDED VULCAN ARMS") - TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR
MARK? WHAT MARK? I'll STAND WHERE I WANT MARILYN - BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
MICHAEL (aka "I WALK SIDEWAYS BITCHES") - DIGITAL PRODUCER
The verdict? Pretty clever and funny pitches, actually, for such a horrible idea. Sure, there's room to grow preso-wise, but the important thing is Travis, Matt, Marilyn and Michael all come off as likable. That's because they are. (One comes off as slightly creepy, but Travis can work on that.)
Stay tuned for Round 2:
ASSIGNMENT: Sell an ad you love.
THE ONLY RULE: The presentation must last at least 5 minutes.
