• Inspiration.

    Posted on June 10th, 2010 by and currently 16 commenting.


    Let’s pretend you and I are sitting right here on inspiration point. Talking. Photo via Flickr via bertdennisonphotography.

    So I really need you guys today.

    I love writing. Think I have shared this before, but I believe writing inspires thinking and exploring and sharing. And thinking and exploring and sharing are good things.

    If you are reading this and hanging out with us, I have to believe you think we add value in your life.

    So, I have a question for you:

    If you and I could spend an entire day together — or if you and anyone from Brains on Fire could spend an entire day together — out walking in the sunshine or drinking some beers or sitting on the side of a mountain, what would you want to talk about?

    I need a little bit of inspiration today. I guess we all do some days.

    And because I am crazy about you, I’d love for that inspiration to come from you.

    Send me some questions or just your thoughts. I promise I will use your inspiration wisely.

    OXOXOX,
    Robbin

  • http://www.businessesGROW.com/blog Mark W Schaefer

    Hate to disappoint you, but I would spend the time LISTENING to you, not talking.

    I first found out about your agancy from a talk that Geno gave about the Fiskars project. I was blown away. As I explored your website and your work I was so very impressed … and I am not easily impressed.

    I come to your blog to learn and be inspired myself. By the way i don’t live far from you (Knoxville) and would leap at the chance to spend a day with you and your crew! But I’m not sure I would be much of a contributor. I would enjoy just soaking it in and listening to your stories.

    Keep up the great work!!

    ~Mark
    @markwschaefer

  • http://brainsonfire.com Robbin

    Well Mark, actually that was pretty inspirational. And maybe just what we needed. Love back to you. I love listening to our stories too. I will go do some listening today.

  • http://www.kesconsultinggroup.com Glenn Bourquin

    Robbin,

    I have been reading “Zen and the Art of Making a Living” and have found it VERY inspiring. At first you might think it’s a book about finding a job but if you are settled in a career, it will stoke some things up for you. At any given time, I am usually in the process of reading 3-4 books switching back and forth a good bit between them but this particular book has been keeping me up at night (in a good way). So if I were able to spend all day chatting about something, it would be aligning your life’s purpose with work and how we can use our unique talents to empower others and earn a living at the same time.

  • http://www.policymedical.com Daisy

    I’d pick your brain about how the average Joes out there can break out of their daily rut and security net to devote their lives to their true passions.

    How many of us have the courage and recklessness in our adult lives to take that leap of faith? Not many. Myself included.

    An idea, expressed, is still an idea nonetheless, but a more tangible one. And talking could bring us one step closer to doing.

    Cheers!
    Daisy

  • http://www.designandnonsense.com Amanda

    I’ve had real trouble lately seeing the good that marketing is doing in the world. Can we use these wonderful marketing skills that so many posses to do good in the world or at least more good than is being done now? How can we shift some of the focus away from consumerism? I guess the question is how can we balance the way we make our living with our impact on the world we live in and the people we live around? I sometimes get the ‘hibbie geebies” when i’m around traditional marketing too much.

  • http://worthwhile.com Chris Rackley

    I’m the one that would probably attempt to engage you in a theological conversation. Sights such as the image above fill me with awe at the sense of a divine creation.

    In the case of the mountain scenario – I find it fascinating that we travel so far and (sometimes under harsh conditions) to be inspired by things. What is interesting is that we don’t go to them so that we can feel better about ourselves. In other words, I don’t go to the Grand Canyon for an ego boost, to think about how great I am. On the contrary, I go to see how small I am and how great and amazing the canyon is. I don’t think, “Hey! Look at me!” I think, “Wow! Look at this gorgeous canyon!” Perhaps that’s the deeper answer – the reason we’re inspired by sights such as the mountainside is because, for the briefest of moments, our minds are completely off of ourselves. I dunno, perhaps, right? …

    … and that’d be a discussion worth having with you, Robbin. :-)

  • KC

    Robbin – first I want to know if you took the photograph in Yosemite?! Then I could bore you with my hiking journeys out in Yosemite and the Sierra Mts. My husband and I are traveling there again in Sept., and always being in the mountains – out west is the most amazingly, inspiring, challenging time. I would want to talk about the similarities in training your body to complete a 23 mile hike up to the top of Mt. Whitney in a day and training your mind to “think” strategically – out of the box – creatively – forward when working in the day to day at whatever it is you do. The later I can find really difficult at times. The physical training part is easy for me. Give me a mountain and I will climb it! The challenge I find is in pulling myself out of the day to day so I can rise above the “noise” and think…. or at least train my brain to think and not just react. It is challenging. As a company and as “employees/people” we cannot stay where we are – we have to be moving. I would love to know how you and others do this in the course of the day to day…. because I know you are super busy too… and the day to day is so important too.

    PS. the mountain in the distance under the glow of the sunset is Half Dome and I have stood on the edge and stared into the vastness of Yosemite Valley. There are no words. Thanks for sharing that photo. I am encouraged. :-) Now I think I will take a stroll down Main Street and catch a vision of hiking in Sept. :-)

  • http://syneticbrand.com/ Stephen

    Sorry, but I’d talk shop. It seems like what a brand essentially is (or can be) changes every generation. I think they’ve been promises, and personalities, and gut feelings, but they aren’t limited to any of those things. I can’t think about brands without thinking of what my favorite rock bands meant to me as a kid. That was my imprinting, but my own kids don’t have that kind of relationship to music… So, what’s next? In 20 years what will the most exciting brands be like, and how will they fit into how people live, think, feel, relate to one another? I also wonder what new kinds of brands may displace.

    Any of that work on you?

  • http://brainsonfire.com Robbin

    You guys are just amazing. And inspiring. Nope. I ripped that photo from Flickr. I will read and re-read these replies often…

  • http://thatsacorker.com Matt Corker

    I often wish to do just that. Sit down and chat with you and your remarkable team.
    The topic I would discuss: how are you going to change someone’s world?
    Let the fruit smoothies or cold beer lead from that.

  • http://www.mltcreative.com Glenn Taylor

    Robbin,
    I first stumbled upon BOF from a link to one of Spike’s blog posts and found it refreshing and uplifting. That has been a long time ago and I still find inspiration here many times and share it with my team often. You and your team are a bright beacon in our trade.

    Maybe we could sit back, put on a little Lucinda, pour a tequila and discuss our ideas on where things are headed in two, five or ten years. Better yet, what can we all do to help shape that future as marketers, creatives and humans. I have no doubt you would have some valuable nuggets in that conversation. Have a great weekend and thanks again for all you do.

  • tracy

    I would like to talk about negative emotions and how they can be embraced and utilized in marketing and public engagement. I’d also like to hear the BOF crew’s thoughts about why we’re so darn afraid of negative emotions – from a business and creativity perspective. Just wondering.

  • http://www.relyable.com Lane Campbell

    I would want to wonder with you: what would happen if you could develop a way for altruistic behavior to show positive financial returns?

    What would a system like that look like? What actions would it inspire or direct? How could you prove it?

  • http://www.ChartingDreams.com Jen McGahan

    Since I have a tiny little readership, I don’t write blog posts unless my brain is really on fire. What’s this blog about again?

    OK, here’s something: two women hugging; mid 20th century, Russia. (Why are they so happy anyway?) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/7797827/Rodchenko-to-Vkhutemas.html?image=3

    It’s a big world out there. Lots to inspire. Close your eyes and type something in your search box. See what happens. Or just turn the thing off and go take a kid to Chuckee Cheese’s (I did the other day and seriously considered sitting under the table for the duration); take the bus to the end stop; read an old letter you received when you were eighteen years old; go outside in the dead of night and imagine a story to go with the sounds you hear…..lots to see there.

    By the way, re the pic: I was a sheltered kid who lived inside books when I was young. I embarrassed myself the first time I pronounced ‘Yosemite’ out loud. I said “Yo’-za- mit (long i)” and received a hoot of laughter in response. How’s that for inspiration?

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  • http://www.nimbusrecording.com Chris Brandt

    Hi Robbin,
    Reading some of the submissions above I thought I could offer something in response.

    I work at a recording studio that is also a school for recording and music business. The founders of the school are a couple of big name producers (credits include Pink Floyd “The Wall”, Peter Gabriel, Rage Against the Machine, and Red Hot Chili Peppers). One of them has a daughter that has been in and out of hospitals her whole life. He lives in a crazy world juxtaposed by sometimes-selfish young rock stars putting their careers up their noses, and kids showing incredible bravery fighting to stay alive.

    He met one teenage girl who was fighting cancer and who had written a song. Her vocals were recorded at the hospital, and then back at the studio guitar, drums, etc. were added. Unfortunately she passed away, but her parents said that during the time of making the album their daughter fought harder and was more alive than in any other period since her diagnosis. This was the spark for Garth Richardson’s inspiration.

    Since that time, another young girl with cancer has come to record in our studio. Again, Garth produced it. Her name is Megan McNeil. The video for the song is attached, and speaks for itself.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9pHISnIj2Y

    Right now we are in the process of putting a recording studio in the local childrens hospital. Music Therapy works wonders – the difference here is that we are going to help record their work, providing something tangible for them. Depending on the circumstances, perhaps even a legacy. The students from our school will run it. We already have plans for how to make this replicable, and recreate a recording platform in other hospitals. This is a long-term plan.

    I teach the music business program at the school, but I took the job because I wanted to lead this project. Garth’s vision to give back started this ball rolling. The first studio will be amazing. The difference is that this project as the momentum to make this inspiration scalable. I never thought I would hear those words together.

    The name of the school is Nimbus School of Recording Arts in Vancouver, Canada (www.nimbusrecording.com).

    If you could be inspired to pass around Megan’s video after watching it, I would be tremendously grateful.

    Thank you,
    Chris Brandt