I think everyone should write at least 1 book in their lifetime. For the last six months, I’ve really been thinking about getting my first book started.
My current focus on this has come from the slew of grad and law school essays that I’ve looked over for friends recently. I have known some of these people for 3, 4, 5 years and learned more about them from those 2-3 pgs than from any conversation that we had since we met. You could say that says something about the breadth and depth of our conversations, but I think it says something about society and how few of us really share our stories.
It may sound crazy, but I love people- meeting new people, engaging in conversation, people watching, trying to figure out what makes us do what we do, learning people’s stories and sharing my own. Being in PR in DC, I regularly go to a lot of media and tech networking events or meetups. Often when I meet people and we have not been formally introduced, I say: “What’s your story?”
Not everyone knows how to take this question. I blame my English 11 professor, who introduced me to my now favorite genre- biographies, for this gift/curse of a fascination. Aside from the typical DC “what’s your name, where do you work, what do you do,” I’m trying to learn your story, what makes you YOU?
At this point in my life, a lot of what makes me ME involves being a Gen-Yer, my transition into the real world, my thoughts about how things will work out, so I am not surprised that I came up with this video when Twenty Something Bloggers asked me this:
“Film yourself answering the following questions:
1. If you wrote an autobiography of your life in your 20s so far, what would the first chapter be called? What would the last chapter be called?”
When I first heard of Blog Action Day 2008, I knew I had to take part, but I didn’t know what I could do or if there was anything in particular that I could say regarding Poverty to really make a difference.
I spent a couple weeks thinking about it and ended up doing a self-evaluation, looking at who I am, what my passions are and actions I’ve taken to those ends. Going to see Call+Response definitely helped me along this path.
If anyone asked me to pick two topics that I’m extremely passionate about, without blinking, I’d say Health and Education. I was raised by a phenomenal woman who has spent 25+ years teaching in the NYC Dept of Education, and I had the true PRIVILEGE of getting a great education both in and out of the classroom. My education led me to the start of my career in health care communication, and though I have moved on, in no way have I left my passion for health behind.
We all have work to do when it comes to living in good health, but as always, those living in the poorest of conditions have the least access to information and resources which, depending on lifestyle, can be a formula for poor health. With an education, I believe we can empower the most disadvantaged person to improve their life and the lives of those around them overall.
What am I really getting at?
The thing that became apparent through my self-evaluation was that my passions and actions didn’t line up. In this blog, and in general, I’ve shared my passion for PR but not the other issues which are just as important to me. That’s going to change, both here and offline.
I’ve already begun to make some progress towards my goal by volunteering with Level Ten Leaders, an Education non-profit focused on closing the achievement gap, but it’s only the start. I have not got it completely planned out, but withinspiringbloggerslikethesepeople, I’ll find my way.
I encourage you to line up your passions and actions, and I hope you find your way as well!
As Twitter overflows with the many great Blog Action Day posts, I’ll update this post to share the links with you. Hopefully, they will inspire you to take action against poverty in the best way you know how.
Between Twitter, the papers and Ad Age, I’ve gotten different bits of info on the Chevy Aveo Livin Large campaign, enough to want to check it out.
Ad Age writer Jean Halliday reports:
“Chevrolet is trying a new twist on viral marketing. General Motors Corp.’s volume brand said it’s offering up to 10 free rides a day to college students on six campuses in a Chevy Aveo5 hatchback and filming the experience.
Students are encouraged to ham it up. The videos will be posted within 24 hours of the ride to a special site, AveoLivinLarge. From here, the students can see the footage, pass it along to friends, or upload it to their blog pages or sites like Facebook.”
Later in Halliday’s piece, Chevrolet North America VP Ed Peper is quoted saying that the “College Cab” program “leverages the online tools young people are already using in a fun and interesting way.”
I have to say that the videos, especially the ones featuring freestyles, are pretty good. They provide a nice 3pm metal break, but I imagine that Chevy’s goal isn’t to go viral. It’s probably closer to something like selling more Aveos, and they’ll do it not because they were able to get some nice videos online but because they were able to create a cool experience for their target audience inside the car.
When it comes to cars, you can have the greatest commercials, the most clever taglines and the craziest celeb plugging the model for you, but in the end, it’s about the car. How do I feel when I get in? How’s the ride? Did I feel at one with the wheel? (Ok, the last one may be a little personal, but you get the point.) It’s about the experience.
This jumped out at me becuase I recently had a few errands to run and needed to rent a car. When I went to pick it up, they didn’t have the one I requested and asked if I wouldn’t mind trying out the HHR.
I would never have voluntarily chosen to get into this vehicle. It just didn’t speak to me, at least not in the same way the ultimate driving machine did. It took about 10 minutes to get used to it and before I knew it I was zipping up and down 66 and 395. I know some of you are making faces right now, but this thing can move! Even though it was by accident, I came to like the car. I had to actually get in the car to see myself in the car. Not an earth-shattering revelation, but it just occurred to me.
To all the marketers and PR pros out there, before you begin putting all your stock in going viral, remember that the best way to do it is still getting nonbelievers to have their own physical, offline experience with your product or service.
Lately, I’ve been doing a LOT of reading and thinking about the future, and by default, there’s been an abundance of jazz and gospel pumping from my headphones as well.
The cause of all this extra big picture thought has been my decision to create a five year plan. I’m too big a believer in the unpredictability of life to think that everything will go as planned, but I still feel the need to get some things down on paper (or a least fleshed out in a word doc) and work towards them.
Somewhere nestled in my five year plan will be going back to school to get my MBA. Taking proactive steps toward that goal, I stopped by the bookstore to check out GMAT books and discovered something else, Ahead of the Curve by Philip Delves Broughton.
In the book, Philip, former New York and Paris bureau chief for the Daily Telegraph of London, recounts his experiences from his two years at Harvard Business school. I’m only about 75 pages in, but so far so good. In the chapter titled “Who Am I?” Philip speaks about the personal development exercise called “My Reflected Best-Self.” He was asked to create his own best-self portrait by answering the following questions:
- How does your best-self profile correspond with the sorts of things you spend the bulk of your time doing?
- What situations or contexts encourage your best-self to emerge?
- What keeps you from operating at your best most of the time?
- How can you priortize your life so that you maximize the potential for your best-self every day?
- What can you do differently?
- What might you consider not doing anymore?
- Are there certain contexts you can put yourself in to maximize your potential?
I know that looks like quite a bit to ponder. I’m gonna try to set aside some time to tackle this this weekend and I challenge you to do the same. What is your “reflected best-self”?
One more thing…if you know of any great models for five year plans or even blog posts that’ll help get things going, please send a few links my way.
I think most are okay, but I HATE the ones that disrupt my ultimate quest for enlightenment (also known as my attempt to read the news) by sliding down the whole page of news, causing me to frantically search for the microscopic ”skip this ad” or “close this ad” link. By the time I actually click on it, the advertisers usually have won and some uninvited company has become etched in my mind.
After preparing myself for battle, today I went to the Washington Post’s site and received a welcome distraction. The page loaded and I noticed some activity on the right hand side of the screen. It was PC Guy.
PC Guy dragging in his Op Ed
What was he up to? Dragging in an Op Ed about people switching to Macs.
Stop Switching to Mac Op Ed
Being a PR guy, I thought this was hilarious on several levels. If you love the all the great Mac-PC Guy interactions as much as I do, here’s one for you.
When I first read about Go Miniman Go!, the celebration of the 30th Birthday of the LEGO Miniman in Ad Age, it really took me on a trip back to my younger days.
One LEGO moment I vividly remember was watching my older cousin use an insane amount of LEGOs to replicate a scene from the American Revolution for his eighth grade history class. With LEGOs and a little imagination, anything was possible.
Somewhere along the way I lost touch with the LEGO Miniman, but I reconnected with him when I stumbled across “Classics in Lego” on Balakov’s Flickr page. This guy has some great replicas of famous historical pictures. Here are some of my favorite from his photostream.
lunch atop a skyscraper
vj day times square
He also has a nice Star Wars collection.
Star Wars, Darth Vader
Balakov grew up with LEGOs, is still a fan, and is notalone. There was a time, though, when LEGO wasn’t so sure.
In May 2008, Jake Mckee, Chief Ant Wrangler at Ants Eye View and Former Global Community Relations Specialist at LEGO did a guest post about building community on Rohit Bhargava’s Personality Project blog. According to McKee, LEGO was ignoring the fans, so he began to reach out to them, and in 2003, he created a series of comic strips “to showcase the mindset, issues, and interests of the adult fans for people inside the company.” He described the strips as “a fun and comical look at some fairly complex issues, distilled into four-panel strips and complete with punchlines.”
The comic strips were eventually distributed online among fans and turned out to be a huge hit, giving McKee serious credibility in their community and (I think) fostering relationships sure to keep LEGO around for a little while.
Like the running man, Legos have always been there, and if they continue to acknowledge their fans they’ll continue to be. Now, if you haven’t seen it, check out the Go Miniman Go! video. Happy 30th LEGO!
So I’m on Bolt Bus right now and making full use of the wifi. The music for today’s ride will be provided by iTunes, Tuneage and the baby crying in the back row.
I am extremely glad to be breaking out of the district for a little bit, but I am also glad that I will really be able to catch up on family happenings, the greatness of NYC, my reader and email.
Part of this email catch up will involve posts to del.icio.us. Before I became addicted to all things social, I was “that guy.”
Who’s “that guy”? The one who emails himself great links so that he could either read them later in the day or store them for later use. No worries I am no longer that guy!
I knew of del.icio.us, much like the way my great aunt knows of Facebook, but I never bothered to use the site. Thankfully an awesome person sat me down and showed me Common Craft vid on it.
Instantly, I saw the inefficiency of my ways and signed up. If you’re reading this, you know I’m into Public Relations, Marketing, Branding, Social Media and cool things. That means that you’ll find bits and pieces of all of these on my page.
I hope you find the links there useful, and let me know if you have any links you think I’d want to check out.
It’s been a really long time since I’ve done any straight up campaign prescriptions. If anyone out there has any suggestions for campaigns to check out, feel free to email me at james.walker@prpescriptions.com or DM me on twitter: @jaywalk1. Like, I said, it’s been a while, but here’s something I had to share.
Sucker City, Mad Mag
Background: Nope, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Mad Mag ran a piece on Circuit Sucker City and their Grand Opening downtown right across from Best Buy. Already, I’m laughing. Here’s the other part:
Looking at this, it is clear that several people take shots here, including Nintendo and the epilepsy community. I actually don’t know how funny I think the Epilepsy Victim Bundle is, but that’s a topic for another day. Despite all their shots, I never would have expected a response like this from Circuit City.
What? Why? It’s funny. The only big problem I see here is the joke about the epilepsy bundle with the bitestick controller. You’re a big brand (at least in my mind) and here’s a group poking a little fun. How much harm could it have really caused?
Let’s review this person’s plan of action:
1. Remove all copies from the store.
2. Destroy them
3. Throw it away
Problem solved, right? This person has lost their sense of humor and as a result, really lost it!
Diagnosis: I think the response here was a big overreaction. If anything it caused a little buzz about Circuit City, a brand I associate with my crappy Compaq which always seemed to know the perfect time to freeze, ignore my internet connection, destroy a CD, shutdown or all of the above. That too is a topic for another day.
Prescription: A fun response. By the time I learned about this, it was already taken care of by a smart guy named Jim Babb.
Now, here’s how you deal with something like this. Light, acknowledges the issue, but still humorous. When dealing with these types of things, it’s always best to do the following:
1. Take a deep breath.
2. Think about the positives and negatives of the current situation.
3. Think about potential repercussions of your actions.
4. Find the nearest Gen Y PR Professional.
5. DON’T LOSE YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR!
* If you’re in danger of violating #5, check out Business Guys on Business Trips. It’s hilarious, in that kind-of true but don’t want to admit it kind of way.
So I was poking around on the source of all these days, Twitter, and I came across a pretty cool blog called The Machine is Us. The most recent post featured Feist’s Sesame Street appearance. Check it out:
Ok, so tell me you weren’t wating to see that glorious white Apple icon to appear! If you weren’t, you’re better than me. That commercial ran months ago, but as soon as she started “1,2,3,4″ I was thinking “iTunes, iPod, iPhone, download, buy, buy.” Maybe I’m just a little more susceptible to ads than the average guy.
Anyways, I always found these appearances on Sesame Street amusing. Here’s one of my childhood favs featuring the Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz:
Posted by jaywalk1
Posted by jaywalk1
Posted by jaywalk1
