Brains on Fire

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  Problem solving, bands and an ugly brown van

  Posted on March 31st, 2010 by Eric Dodds and currently 2 commenting.

  

  The amount of noise marketers confront the public with is astounding – thousands of messages per day – and now, in any flavor of media you can imagine. It seems that we’ve somehow created more problems than we knew we had and the products to provide a solution for each of them.

  And I think that’s why it’s so refreshing to see creative people meet real marketplace needs in innovative ways.

  Enter Todd Hansen, Scott Miller, basic economics, an ugly brown van and a so-simple-it’s-brilliant idea.

  Todd and Scott are both musicians with lots of experience on the road. They’ve been in bands and on tour, so they know the ins-and-outs of gigs, venues, travel and trying to fit sleep somewhere into the low-budget tangle of town-to-town live music.

  The number one thing prohibiting bands from going on tour is the cost of lodging, and securing lodging. You can always make enough at the door and at the merch table to cover gas and a couple burgers on the way, but if you’re in the middle of no-where and the only thing there is a Motel 6 and it’s kind of creepy to be sleeping in your van, you have to pony-up $50 [for a hotel room]. If you do that 2 or 3 nights, or have to do it every night, you’re out a hundred, two hundred bucks pretty quick. — Todd and Scott

  It is very common for bands on a budget to stay with people they might know (or even fans) while they’re on tour, especially in close-by cities. Lots of music fans are open to bands crashing at their place. Many times, though, as Todd says, when playing in new places, “a lot of bands do find a Wal-Mart parking lot and sleep in the van.” Which, as you know if you’ve ever slept in your car before, get’s pretty old after 10 minutes. Imagine two-weeks in a van.

  So, instead of bearing under the basic economic barriers to band lodging, they decided to fight it – not just for themselves – but for any struggling band wanting to take their live show beyond the borders of their home town.

  The result of their effort? Better Than The Van (BTTV). A website where music lovers, fans, etc. can sign up as hosts for bands playing in their city. Bands sign up to connect with hosts and secure free places to stay along their tour.

  In marketer-blog-speak, Todd and Scott added ‘aggregated structure to an already organically occurring process.’ They took a common, incredibly helpful activity and made it available and easy for any band, in any city where there’s a BTTV host.

  And bands aren’t the only ones who benefit.

  You can eliminate the cost of lodging from the tour and that can be a perk for booking agents or band managers who have a limited budget per band but want to secure a good six-week tour. –Scott

  We LOVE simple, creative problem solving like BTTV that meets real needs in the marketplace. What’s more, Todd and Scott are true kindred spirits, taking the online connections that betterthanthevan.com fosters offline, where users can meet each other face-to-face.

  We’re doing a happy-hour every six-weeks, which helps take the online connection offline, where people are actually getting together and meeting BTTV users, Better Than The Van hosts, and giving them a forum where they can meet in person, and also get to see some really cool live, local music. (The latest offline effort included giving away an ugly brown van packed with gear to a lucky winner attending SXSW.) –Scott

  Apparently we’re not the only ones who love them, either. They’ve gotten looks from Wired, ABC News and the New York Times Freakonomics blog, along with a slot on a panel at SXSW Music.

  Long live simple, creative innovation. Hats off, Todd and Scott.

  Tags: bands, Better Than The Van, creative thinking, innovative ideas, music, Problem-solving Skills, Scott Miller, SXSW, Todd Hansen, tour
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  Meet Logan, Our CFO+COO

  Posted on March 30th, 2010 by Robbin and currently 10 commenting.

  

  I’m super excited to introduce you to our newest member of the Brains on Fire tribe, Logan Metcalfe. So jazzed in fact that I am introducing him before we even have a chance to get his bio on our website. I’ve always found this position to be critical to a growing company. As many of you who run companies know, this is a position that requires enormous trust and mutual respect.

  We found him on Twitter.

  Yup. Remember that tweet looking for a super cool, social media savvy CFO type? Lots of you were skeptical. But we found him. Or the the universe helped us find each other.

  He actually attended our FIRE session last year. Funny thing about that universe of ours, it always sends you just what you need — when you need it.

  Anyway, Logan comes to us by way of New Zealand (one of my favorite places on the planet). He came to states to join Booz Allen, then went to work for a friend of ours at Immaculate Baking for the last 5 1/2 years. They are now based in Boston instead of Greenvegas, hence the career move. And get this, he and his wife raise chickens — in the city. Yup.

  So here’s what Logan has to say about his decision to join Brains on Fire:
  “There are too many organizations in the world with blah, blah identities that fail to connect with the people around them. Brains on Fire is changing this one organization at a time – working with clients to create inspired identities and igniting movements of passionate fans. I’m super excited to join this tribe of talented, creative individuals and, in my own little way, help them change the world.”

  A man of few words. But he know his numbers.

  So, drop in and say hello, will ya?

  Tags: CFO, COO, Logan Metcalfe, Trust
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  Have you seen this?

  Posted on March 29th, 2010 by Robbin and currently 7 commenting.

  “What is it about creative endeavors that make us really afraid for each others mental health?” — Elizabeth Gilbert

  
  This is the way to start a Monday morning.

  Please, do yourself a favor and take 15 or 20 minutes and watch this to the very end.

  Eric Whitlock, our very own “Design Wizard” sent this to me on Sunday and I watched it twice. Most of my professional career has been spent motivating myself and other creative, delicate, sensitive types (you know what I am talking about) to push themselves to allow great things to happen.

  We work in world of real life deadlines, budgets and realities. And to create an environment that is respectful to that and still open to allowing “ole” moments, has taken many forms and some heated debate over the years. The biggest lesson I have learned:

  Creativity takes order and process.

  It sounds a bit counter intuitive, but creativity needs structure in order to zig and zag around a bit and back again. Just ask anyone here about internal “rehearsals”. You’ll get a BIG groan, but we all know that particular discipline and process has made our work 10x more effective.

  I love how Elizabeth talks about getting up at the same time every morning. About how half the creative process is just showing up. I also love the notion of putting some distance between yourself and your creativity. Brilliant. I have seen this struggle, this dance for years. I can’t stand for someone to tell someone else they are a genius. TOO MUCH PRESSURE PEOPLE.

  Most big ideas are “ole” moments. Period. They can come from a client or an intern or a creative. One the coolest things about how we work on a project at Brains on Fire has just evolved over time. Work, ideas, just slowly start showing up on a large board. Others will write on these ideas or drawings or photos. Add to them. Comment out loud without a clear understanding of where the idea came from. It’s a nice way to take some of the pressure out of sharing and collaborating. I love how @genochurch sees it. “Our job is to create a dance floor of insight and inspiration.” Love that. I see this blog as bit of a dance floor.

  I also hate to see even the most talented of people give themselves too much credit. Those that can simply say. “I think that turned out right nice” and are humble about taking the credit are the ones that seem to be the best at their craft. Whether its writing or designing or strategy.

  So as Elizabeth says, if your job is to dance. Do your dance. “Ole to you” for having the shear human stubbornness to keep showing up.

  Happy Monday.

  Now dance.

  Tags: creativity, Elizabeth Gilbert
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  Sunday Night Confessions. Feeding My Inner Cookie Monster

  Posted on March 28th, 2010 by Geno and currently 18 commenting.

  Last week I spoke and attend the Optimization Summit in Dallas, TX. “OptSum” is primarily focused on multi-family real estate, a business category that I had no experience in.

  I want to acknowledge Tami Siewruk for some brilliant thinking on shaking up a single-category conference, with a heavy dose of us word of mouth–social media folks in a workshop format. When you look at the speakers and topics, ranging from Lionel Menchaca, Mack Collier, Jason Falls, John Jantsch, and Chris Penn (and that’s just off the top of my head)… you could have been at a Social Media conference.

  As I kicked off OptSum with an 8am workshop, I quickly realized the attendees came to be engaged. For some weird reason at the end of my presentation “Cookie Monster’” popped into my head.

  Cookie Monster has a passion bordering on fanaticism for cookies. Each individual cookie is a remarkable experience to Cookie Monster. That might be why I love him, because every cookie is followed by an exciting “Om Nom nom nom”, over, and over, and over. Oddly I have a similar habit.

  Being remarkable in your job is hard work, its hard to be up for every single day. No matter how much we love our jobs some days it’s just work.

  This is my own theory, so therefore it probably holds as much weight as a WWE wrestling title belt: Cookie Monster feeds his passion for cookies because, he simply enjoys each cookie like it was the first cookie he’s ever tasted. Cookie Monster feeds his soul with his mantra, “Me want Cookie.”

  I feed my soul last week… it actually wasn’t my doing, it was the people around me; the attendees, and the other presenters. Sometime schedules dictate that you present and leave, but this time I had the opportunity to attend OptSum.

  I try to relate stories into lessons learned, and for the first time in a long time, that’s what I got from being an attendee. Having conversations and sharing stories over lunch, breakouts, dinner, and sitting as an attendee listening to my peers present.

  I didn’t go to Dallas hoping to feed my soul, but meeting so many people inspired by doing their jobs, inspired me. I don’t take my job for granted but we could all use a recharge every now and then.

  My simply advice, find that spark that got you doing what it is you do… and share it.

  Back in 2003, I felt like the right thing to do was to build a movement for empowering teens, to led the charge to talk to other South Carolina teens, about choosing to be tobacco free. It was a spark to my soul… to trust that people can be the message.

  Tags: Brains on Fire, Cookie Monster, geno church, Sunday Blog
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  Same different as me.

  Posted on March 26th, 2010 by Robbin and currently 9 commenting.

  
  Do you ever meet someone who on the outside is completely opposite of you, but when you search a little bit deeper, you realize there is a connection. I call it “same different as me.” When I first meet Tim TV at TEDx Greenville I knew we had some sort of bond. An underneath the surface bond. I have always never fit into the norms of life. I have given myself permission to play and dream and most of all — do. I have gone against the grain many, many times. I know on some level what Tim is talking about…
  
  So meet my new friend Tim.

  This is his “speech” from TEDx Greenville.
  
  His presentation begins with a walk on Bed of Broken Glass while singing  “Cold Water”.

  Sometimes, after I finish the act, people will ask, “Do you toughen your feet to allow you to do that?” In actuality, it’s quite the opposite.  It’s not about me “fighting” the glass or “beating” it, it’s about coming to an understanding.  

  The glass says, “You, uh, you know I’m glass right?  Broken glass?”  And I say “Yeah.”  

  And it says, “Aaaand you know I cut things?”  And I say, “Yeah.”

  And it says, “Okay, then we’re cool!”

  Every time I perform the bed of glass, I understand and accept that I am stepping into a situation where I could quite possibly get cut, and it might very well hurt.  But you can’t die from pain, and with that realization, over time, the apprehension goes away.  Some days I do get cut… some days I don’t; but there is never worry and there is never fear; only joy in the immediacy of the moment.  This is my approach to creating action in Greenville.

  Once upon a time, there was a man whom many considered to be the town fool.  He was walking on a path through the forest, when he noticed the man whom many considered to be a sage, sitting naked up in a tree, meditating.  So the town fool decided that it would be wise to copy him.  After a while in the tree, he looked over and asked “Why is it that when I do this sort of thing they call me a fool, but when you do it they call you very wise?”  The old man looked at him and said, “Because I know who to tell my stories to.”

  I came to Greenville just over a year ago.  In Detroit, I spent the last 20 years slowly building my skills to become a performer and larger-than-life action hero.  So moving here, I felt bulletproof.  I started with nothing and I had a desperate need to make this new town a home.  It was sink or swim, and sinking just isn’t flattering on me.

  So with love, passion and a mad set of unconventional skills as my sword, and an eccentric detachment from convention as my shield, I sunk my teeth into the heart of this new world.  (side note – it tasted like sweet tea)

  Where I come from, our subculture evolved as a reaction to the tyranny & oppression of the auto industry’s overwhelming “factory mentality”.  Our particular group was called the “Michigan Burning Man Contingent”, after the yearly festival in Nevada we would all attend. The event has certain ethics and concepts that we used to form our world in Detroit.  Our version of art was based around the ideas of “Decommodification”, “Radical Self-Expression” & “Immediacy”.  In our quest to create interactive, participatory experiences, we came to embrace the term “Do-ocracy”.  We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation.

  If one of us wanted to create a festival, the others in the group would support them and help them do it.  If someone wanted to have a parade of Santas or have a Burning-art party, or a Zombie roller-disco night, we were there in full regalia.  Just realizing that you could do such things was SUCH an empowering feeling, not only of expression and self-belief, but of connection to your community.

  And connection with your community is the first step to feeling connection to the world and all points beyond.

  When I first started hula-hooping in Falls Park, I always brought many hoops to share.  Some people thought it cost money.  Some thought I was hired to do it.  Many were nervous to play, for fear that they would get made fun of, as though they were doing something wrong.  It was very much like they were waiting for permission to be themselves.  The conservative stranglehold that has constipated this town for so long has, to a great extent, faded, but the habit of apprehension still remains.  

  Now, I have no power or authority to give anyone permission to be anything, but if you need me to be the one to give you the permission you think you need in order to be the You that you want to be, Gol’durnit, I’ll do it!

  And so it is with this “Mission of Permission” that I set forth in Greenville.  I love this town and I’m here to show that if you’re willing to accept a cut or two along the way, the distance between the impossible and the achievable is directly proportionate to the size and shape of your love.

  This Public Service Announcement has been brought to you by the letter “U”…   And the number “7”.

  Thank you.

  Yeah, read it twice. It’s very relevant. Or better yet, watch the whole thing here. BTW, I love @ellmcgirts take away. “People are like bits of broken glass. They will hurt you if you let them.” What’s your take?

  Tags: Community, Tim TV