The Fire Sessions 2009 – Part 3 of 3: Parting Words of Wisdom

Posted on May 13th, 2009 by Kindling Spirits and currently 9 commenting.

Olivier Blanchard, the Brand Builder himself, has been kind enough to cover the 2009 FIRE Sessions. Here’s what he captured:

For this, the third and final post in my FIRE Sessions 2009 coverage, I thought I would keep things simple and share with you some of my favorite slivers of wisdom, flashes of insight, and quotable soundbites from this year’s event. No themes required, no narrative threads, no beginning, middle and end. Just powerful little bits of genius that you will hopefully find helpful – starting with Best Buy’s Jamie Plesser on gaining a competitive advantage in a stressed economy: “In tough economic times, people and companies that can accelerate through the change will come out ahead.”

“For us, it’s never about the sale. It’s about putting the tools in the customers’ hands” – The Fiskateers

“I can teach, but I don’t know how to sell. I would be horrible at selling. But I can show someone how to do this. I can share my passion and my knowledge. It’s what I do.” – Cheryl Waters, Lead Fiskateer

Spike Jones

Stop with the nonsense. This is not where you need to be. This is not the conversation you want to be having. (See image below) – Paraphrasing Geno’s comments about this slide:

“Market with people, not to people.” – Geno Church

“The average person participates in 112 Marketing-relevant messages every day”. – Geno Church

“Before you start asking how do we use social media, ask how do we connect better with customers?” (Much more important.) – Jake McKee

“In order to tap into a conversation, find the emotion.” – Dan Heath

“If you don’t ask questions, it becomes impossible for companies to change.” – Jake McKee

“Customers want an open dialogue. They don’t want a scripted set of answers.” – Jake McKee

“Who should own community engagement at a company: PR? Customer Service? Marketing? Wrong way to look at it: Whomever is most interested in and passionate about customer engagement should own it.” – Jake McKee

“Beware the Curse of Knowledge: The more you know, the less you remember what it is like to be a beginner. What it is like to be on the outside. This is a major and all too common communication obstacle. Experts tend to complicate answers. Counteract that by simplifying everything.” – Dan Heath (In other words, KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid is still relevant today.)

“If you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly.” – Dan Heath (It was worth repeating.)

“Ask yourself: Are you nice, or are you relevant? Which one would you rather be?” – Dan Heath, speaking about a hypothetical MMA match between Tom Hanks and a grizzly bear. (Okay, not really… but almost.)

“Attracting everyone is attracting no one.” – Dan Heath

“You train the culture you want.” – Jake McKee

“You get the culture you deserve.” – Me, in my own head.

“Fear is the principal motivator behind companies NOT participating in social web and communities.” – Jake McKee

“The risk is not in joining the conversation, but in NOT joining it.” Suzanne Fanning, Fiskars

“What looks like resistance is often just a lack of clarity.” – Dan Heath

And last but not least: “1 tall glass of whole milk = 5 strips of bacon.” (Saturated fat values.) – Dan Heath (So switch to 1% or skim and you might live longer.)

Okay, that’s about it. I hope that my three little blog posts today provided you guys with all the insight into The FIRE Sessions 2009 that you could possibly muster without actually being there.

Brains On Fire, I can’t thank you enough for inviting me to participate in this year’s FIRE Sessions… and treating me like one of your own. I was really touched. And hanging out with Spike, Geno, Robbin, Greg C., Kathie, Matt, Justin, Justine, Heather, Jack, Eric, Liza and Brandy was a lot of fun.

Thanks also for the wonderful opportunity to connect with so many great people this week, from Fast Company’s Ellen McGirt and the lead Fiskateers to Dan Heath, Jake McKee, and the folks at Immaculate Baking Co. (Incidentally, I just baked my first batch of their 100% organic cookies, and I am hooked!)

Thanks again for letting me take over your blog for a day, Brains on Fire. You guys rock.

Long live The FIRE Sessions!

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