• We could all use a little pixie dust.

    Posted on April 18th, 2012 by and currently 3 commenting.

    “Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”

    When I was little, I had a lot of fantastical ideas. I was convinced my stuffed animals came to life at night to protect the house from burglars lurking in the shadows. I tried to make a deal with the Tooth Fairy to keep her spare change and leave me a unicorn. Once I even pilfered an egg from the fridge and squirreled it away in my room, tucked snuggly in a knitted hat. Convinced that the egg would hatch within days, I hadn’t really thought through how I would explain a new pet chick to my parents, but I was sure they wouldn’t be able to cast him away once they saw his little fluffy face. (Note: My master plan did not result in a pet chick. It did, however, give me valuable insight into why we refrigerate dairy products.)

    Childhood is a time of imagination, magic and vast possibility. According to psychology researchers at Lancaster University in England, bringing magical content—everything from the Tooth Fairy to the witches and wizards that rule Harry Potter’s Hogwarts—into the classroom boosts student imagination and creativity.

    The Study
    52 children between the ages of four and six were divided into two groups. The first group viewed scenes from Harry Potter that included characters wielding their wands, using magic and talking to animals. The second group watched clips where no magic is used. At the conclusion of the viewing, both groups of students were asked to come up with alternative uses for a cup and create “drawings of impossible items.” The researchers found students who had watched the magical clips significantly outscored the other group on creativity tests. They concluded that exposure to magical thinking— which they defined as “ways of acting and reasoning about the physical world that violate known physical principles”—enables children to “create fantastic imaginary worlds.” That in turn increases student’s ability to “view the world and act upon it from multiple perspectives.”

    Albert Einstein once said, “Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” It seems there may be more truth to that statement than anyone realized. In the pursuit to find creative and innovative solutions for our clients, we must surround ourselves with magical props, people and possibilities.

    On my desk you’ll find an adopted monster, a creativity voodoo doll and a tiny jar of pixie dust. Visitors often ask about them in passing. Truth be told, the monster isn’t that scary, I suspect the voodoo doll is defective and the pixie dust has probably passed its expiration date. These objects in and of themselves don’t make me any more mighty. They don’t give me superpowers. The do, however, serve as little reminders to take a few moments each day to let my head to float up into the clouds. They remind me of a rare and precious time in life when fairies made fair trades, stuffed animals were the best kind of home security system and a dozen peeping pet chicks were just a couple days in a warm hat away. Even a few brief moments a day in that magical memory makes me happy. And when I am happy, I am undeniably a better writer.

    Last week I was taking a stroll through the BOF blog archives, and I came across this post from Greg Cordell inspired by his daughter, Kylie. Having known the Cordells for some time now, I am fully convinced that if you examined them under a microscope, you’d find pixie dust twinkling in the double helix of their DNA.

    I was reminded of the power of super-sized dreams when I got home last night. As I walked into the house, I noticed Kylie, my nine-year-old daughter, sitting on a blanket in the middle of the backyard, talking to herself. I asked my wife what Kylie doing out there. She told me that our daughter had explained that she was gong outside to pray and she was going to need “lots of space.”

    When Kylie came in I gave her a big hug and, of course, I asked what she was doing on the blanket in the middle of the yard. She told me she was praying. “What were you praying for?” I asked. At first she didn’t want to tell me. She said it was a secret. But, as big dreams often do, her prayer bubbled to the surface and she shared that she was praying for a pet dragon. That’s right, a pet dragon. Fully expecting her prayer to be answered, Kylie needed lots of space for the dragon to land, explaining the reason she was praying outside. I asked what she would do if she had a pet dragon. She told me the dragon would make popcorn for her. “Yes,” I said. “That would be very cool.”

    During tough economic times, dreams and dreamers can take a beating. Dreams gets pushed aside and we just try to get through the day faster and cheaper. Rather than super-sizing, we can get caught up in “right sizing” and before you know it, we aren’t really dreaming at all. But maybe during tough times is when dreams need to be the biggest. Call me irresponsible or idealistic if you want, but I doubt I’ll ever see any magic in ordinary microwave popcorn again. Not when I can have a dragon in the backyard that will make it for me.

    Wishing you a magical Wednesday.

    ——

    Read more on the study here

    http://www.good.is/post/could-harry-potter-and-the-tooth-fairy-be-the-key-to-boosting-student-creativity/

  • Start Something.

    Posted on April 17th, 2012 by and currently 4 commenting.


    Photo from my friend John Bielenberg‘s iphone. Don’t you just want to know where that road leads?

    I love the start of things.

    Start up companies and organizations fascinate me.

    I love hearing stories of first kisses and first dates.

    And first jobs and first cars.

    I cry at weddings.

    And when babies are born.

    I underline the first sentences of almost all my books as I imagine the author’s moment of quietly deciding:

    This is where I will begin.

    And since we are in the conversation business, I often think of the first conversations in my life.

    How so many things get decided in that very first exchange. Sometimes those first conversations evolve into amazing friendships or wonderful business relationships.

    So my advice for you this Tuesday morning is simple. Become aware of the firsts around you today. See the possibilities in each new conversation. Each new road. Each new meeting or phone call. Keep your heart and your mind wide open.

    Chances are something really amazing and magical will begin today…

  • Storytelling and Wonder.

    Posted on April 9th, 2012 by and currently 5 commenting.

    Last week I took a needed break from my crazy-busy-full life and spent some relaxing time on the coast. I turned off my iphone. (I even put it in another room while I slept.) I shut off my computer. I rode bikes. I watched clouds and listened to the wind. I walked on the sand barefoot.

    It was like magic for my soul.

    I really believe that our minds need to be at rest and play in order to look at things with fresh and innovative eyes.

    Don’t you?

    This morning, I’m back and excited to have the mic on our blog. I love to share ideas and stories that inspire me. Things that fill me with wonder and awe.

    Grab a coffee and take 18 minutes to learn from Andrew Stanton. (Warning: It contains a wee bit of graphic language.)

    If you can’t take the time to watch this morning, let me share a few notes I scribbled while listening to his TED talk.

    The best stories infuse wonder.

    Mr. Rogers carried this note he overheard from a social worker in his back pocket. “Frankly, there isn’t someone you couldn’t learn to love if you listen to their story.”

    The Goal of a great story: Make me care.

    Speak from your heart. Capture truth from your experiences.

    Good stuff, huh?

    One of my all time favorite storytellers is Cordell. He captures truth from his experiences often. I love this simple story he tells about embracing change.

    When Greg was younger and had just purchased his first home, he wanted to redo the bathroom and change the dated tile. He made a plan and one Saturday morning, he gathered the tools he would need. For a long time he just sat on the edge of the tub starring at the walls and floor. His Dad stopped by to see how his project was coming along. Greg was still just starring at the walls. His dad said nothing. He just grabbed a hammer on the floor and swung hard at the wall. “Son, just start somewhere.”

    What’s a lesson you’ve learned through the power of storytelling? What is your takeaway from Andrew?     Come on, I love it when we have a conversation.

    P.S. Eric got MARRIED to Julie on Saturday (remember, they met via this blog?) and I thought I would share a little peek at this really happy day. It was full of wonder and magic and love.

  • It’s About People.

    Posted on March 26th, 2012 by and currently 0 commenting.

    We’re all in marketing grad school.

    Surrounded by massive changes in how we communicate, we need to study and share and listen hard with an open hearts and minds.

    The good folks at KellerFay are some of the best “professors” I know in the Word in the Mouth Marketing world. At Brains on Fire, we discuss and share their research and findings with each other and our clients often. Which is why I’m super excited about their new book coming out on May 22nd called The Face-to-Face Book. Last night I sat down to write a post inspired one of Ed’s recent posts:

    Social Media is Word of Mouth on Steroids, or is It? Part II

    When I was almost done, I went back and re-read Ed’s words again and here’s what hit me:

    I really want to share all of Ed words with you.

    So with Ed’s permission, enjoy. (I’ve highlighted some remarks that really hit home.)
    ______________________________________________________________________________________

    I have heard it said on a number of occasions that social media is word of mouth on steroids. The argument goes like this: Whereas face-to-face conversations only reach people one-on-one or one-on-several, social media allows people to reach hundreds and often thousands of people with a single post. As a result, it has a far greater reach than word of mouth.

    I have been skeptical of this view, arguing that while social media is certainly a piece of the social influence puzzle for brands that deserves to be leveraged, it is just one piece among many. And the premise that social media is word of mouth on steroids ignores the facts. A singular focus on social media is misguided, in my view, as it can blind brands to the full array of opportunities available to them to drive brand advocacy. This is the subject of my forthcoming book, The Face-to-Face Book: Why Real Relationships Rule in a Digital Marketplace, co-authored with Brad Fay and coming in May.

    A few months ago I wrote a blog under the headline, “Social Media is Word of Mouth on Steroids, or is It?” In the piece I shared research that shows for brands with tens of millions of Facebook fans, active engagement by those fans is quite small. In fact just 0.45% are active fans. In a similar vein, research was released last month from the prestigious Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science in Australia showing that after the initial click to “like” the brand, consumers rarely interact again with the brand on Facebook. Here too, less than 1 percent of people remained active on Facebook after the initial engagement. Ehrenberg-Bass summarized its results as follows: “Big Brands Snubbed by Fans on Facebook.” The message here is that the large numbers associated with social media can be seductive, but they are not always exactly as they appear to be.

    Now comes a very different type of study that further debunks the “social media is word of mouth on steroids” argument. This research, conducted by BuzzFeed and StumbleUpon, looks at the sources of shared content online across their respective networks and comes to this conclusion: “Put simply, the vast majority of sharing occurs in the normal fashion evidenced in real-world word-of- mouth.”

    More specifically, they report that the average Facebook share leads only nine people to visit the story. The median for Twitter was even lower, with each story shared on Twitter leading to five people visiting the story. This reality is far from the “one-to-many” image of social media that many proponents postulate and would be consistent with the “word of mouth on steroid” claim.

    The conclusion from BuzzFeed and StumbleUpon: “What emerges is a picture of social networks where stories go viral when lots of people engage with their normal-sized circles to share content. . . In looking to get content shared, marketers and publishers should focus on content that will resonate and get people talking to their colleagues, friends and families. Social media is about engaging people in conversations that mirror the offline world.”

    The research that is emerging helps to separate fact from fiction. Yes, social media has the potential to reach hundreds or thousands of people at a time, but the reality is that it rarely does. It should be considered as a part of today’s marketing mix, but it is becoming increasingly clear that for brands which wish to spark the conversations that will move their business forward, it is not a panacea nor is it “word of mouth on steroids.” Remember, for each conversation people share with their colleagues, friends and families via social media, there are many multiples more that get shared at the dinner table, at the water cooler, on the sidelines at youth sports events, and anywhere else people congregate. Those conversations collectively generate far more sharing. Let’s take a holistic perspective on the best and most productive ways to engage today’s social consumer.
    ______________________________________________________________________________________

    Ed Keller, CEO of the Keller Fay Group, has been called “one of the most recognized names in word of mouth.” The publication of Keller’s book, The Influentials, has been called the “seminal moment in the development of word of mouth.” His new book, The Face-to-Face Book, is coming out in May 2012. You can follow Ed Keller on Twitter, Facebook and Google+, or contact him directly at ekeller@kellerfay.com.

  • Beautiful Mistakes.

    Posted on March 19th, 2012 by and currently 3 commenting.

    Adults over-think.

    We really do.

    We think about what we wear, who said what to who, who reports to who, the list is long and crazy. We long to be right and look smart and have perfect relationships at home and at work. We set crazy expectations for ourselves and pace our lives to be full of busy-ness.

    But the truth is life is messy.

    Really ,really messy. And there will be missteps along the way.

    My former business partner used to make me absolutely crazy by asking me to do things I felt I had no business doing. His reply was always steady and always the same.

    “You can’t grow unless you have lots of opportunity to fail. You’ll be fine. “

    He believed in the power of mistakes.

    It worked, I took those opportunities and failed A LOT in my early days. It wasn’t always a pretty sight and often it was flat out painful but it gave me the courage to try new things, the courage that I never would have had if I hadn’t gotten used to making mistakes. It worked for me and to be honest, it for the clients who took a chance on our young company.

    I like to think that I have given that same “permission to fail” to others along the way.

    The other day, Geno sent me this TEDx Talk and I immediately knew I had to share it with you.

    Grab a coffee this morning and take a few minutes to watch it. It’s amazing. And actual proof that we need to lighten up and find the child-like wonder in our hearts when we’re at work. We need to give ourselves permission to try new things. To make beautiful mistakes and get messy. And trust that it will create even more possibilities than we could ever have imagined.

    Most the stakes we hold in our hearts are not as high as they seem.

    So let’s celebrate our beautiful mistakes.

    Okay. Your turn now. Have you ever made a mistake that turned out to be a truly wonderful thing?

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