Brains on Fire

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  Lesson Eleven: The First Post – It’s About People, Stupid

  Posted on August 31st, 2010 by Eric Dodds and currently 7 commenting.

  It’s good to be back on the blog. You know, I really miss being here when things get busy – but you’re looking good, as always, and we’ve got some exciting stuff happening around here. And with that, we’re off:

  If you’ve been following the Firephere over the last few months you might have heard that Brains on Fire has been furiously thinking, typing, editing, sketching and publishing a love story. And that story happens to be inked on the pages of a book we’ve named after the state of mind we seek for ourselves, our clients and our kindred spirits: Brains on Fire.

  You can learn plenty about the read (and where to get your hands on one) over at the Brains on Fire book website (1), but today I want to talk about how the love story is going to live beyond words and letters on a page.

  When Robbin talks about writing the book, she is adamant about saying that ‘we’ wrote it – not her and the other people with last names printed on the binding – but all of us:

  When I say “we,” I don’t just mean the four authors you see listed on the cover. “We” represents an army of believers. It’s the people who comment on our blog. It’s the courageous clients we serve. It’s their customers. It’s everyone who sends us a resume or a love note. It’s our employees and extended tribe. It’s people who catch a vision and inquire about our services. It is all of us who are learning and changing the way we think about the work we do in the world. (Phillips, Cordell, Church, Jones ix)

  - Robbin Phillips, Courageous President

  And because so many people inspired the book, we want to continue to re-write the way we do marketing, together. From page 169:

  Igniting movements is hard work. It’s building with people, not tools. Our belief is simple…we’re all in marketing grad school. We’re not experts. Frankly, there are no experts yet. And that’s why we’re all in this together. There are more lessons to learn, more stories to share and more movements to ignite…So join the Brains on Fire movement at www.brainsonfire.com/lessoneleven. Let’s write the next chapters together. This is the beginning, not the end. (Phillips, Cordell, Church, Jones 169)

  So what is Lesson Eleven? It is a collection of real life stories – a movement-maker’s journal. Real stories from you, real stories from other marketing do-ers, real stories that we discover, share and hope will change the way we think about marketing.

  

  So here it is – the first story of Lesson Eleven. And it is based on the opening line of our love story:

  It’s about people, stupid.

  ——————–

  While the medical issues that define our age are many, leading physicians say that childhood obesity poses a gigantic threat. (2) This isn’t the place to discuss the many causes or many proposed solutions, but I ran across a story the other day that serves as a wonderful example of why people are so important. (3)

  Dr. Maureen Black and her associates at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have studied childhood obesity and the ways that people are targeting the problem. They discovered that group health education for inner city Baltimore kids is easily found in school and church settings, but noticed that learning in the place where a majority of health knowledge should come from, the home, is rare.

  Their solution? Pretty simple. Build one-on-one relationships between healthy college students and overweight children, facilitating life learning and mentorship that takes place in the child’s own home. Says Dr. Black,

  These were very active sessions. The mentors were not just talking to them. In every session they had food, and they often made the food together in the child’s home. The mentors took the children to the corner store or to a nearby fast-food restaurant to learn about healthy choices. They visited the skating rink or went hiking in a state park to learn the importance of being physically active. (3)

  The results are pretty remarkable. After only 12 mentorship sessions, the children in the study who were paired with a mentor (there was a control group) experienced a 5% decline in rate of obesity, while those who weren’t experienced an 11% increase. After two years. That’s right – the lessons that the children learned in a personal relationship of only 12 meetings produced changes that lasted two years.

  People are so important, so central, because they are the main ingredient of what makes a movement long-lasting. How?

  It comes down to trust. And people don’t trust your company; people trust people. People they know. People who’s recommendations they seek out and have faith in. People don’t buy your company, product, or service first, they buy people first. (Phillips, Cordell, Church, Jones xiv)

  The childhood obesity example shows that while lots of factors can help (group education, removing soft-drinks from schools, etc.), the hard work of actually getting involved in someone’s life can produce extremely compelling results. Relationships are the lifeblood of any marketing effort that is going to last. And they make the work you do in the world truly meaningful.

  ——————–

  Stay tuned – we’ll have another edition of Lesson Eleven next Tuesday and some great stuff coming up on the blog.

  • (1) You can learn more about the Brains on Fire book and where to get your hands on one at www.brainsonfirebook.com.
  • Phillips, Robbin, Greg Cordell, Geno Church and Spike Jones. Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Print.
  • (2) You can read CDC coverage of stats and consequences of childhood obesity here.
  • (3) You can read about Dr. Black and the mentorship study here.
  Tags: book, Brains on Fire, Brains on Fire Book, childhood obesity, Clients, firesphere, Kindred Spirits, Lesson Eleven, long lasting, Marketing, Movements, people, relationships, sustainable
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  The book is here! The book is here!

  Posted on August 30th, 2010 by Robbin and currently 5 commenting.

  
  For the last year in addition our wonderful day jobs, we have been working overtime @brainsonfire —I mean triple time — to craft a book of lessons learned in igniting powerful, sustainable, word of mouth movements. And geez, we hope you like us enough to want to read it.

  So guess what? TODAY August 30, 2010 is the official release date of Brains on Fire; Igniting Powerful Sustainable Word of Mouth Movements.
  
  We’re so excited and I am frankly a little bit nervous for some reason. It reminds me of my college days in art school. When we’d put our finished art work up for critic.

  Makes me feel like I’m standing naked in room of fully dressed people.

  Anyway, it’s Sunday, and I am at a book store right this minute. Sitting and writing this blog post at one of the Barnes and Nobles in Greenvegas. The one on Haywood Road to be exact. It’s a relatively cool, sunshiny day in our neck of the woods. I walked in — got some chips, one of those IZZE sparkling grapefruit drinks and I am forcing myself to hold off going back to the business section to see the book on it’s shelf until later. Some of us from Brains Fire are meeting here at 4pm to do it together. Along with some of our friends who live close by.
  
  So here’s a couple of things I want to share with you:

  Lots of you have been talking and tweeting about the book and sharing photos. We LOVE that. We are going to aggregate and capture them all on brainsonfirebook.com. So keep going. We REALLY do want to hear from you.

  Connect with us anytime.

  On email. On Facebook @ facebook.com/BrainsOnFireBook and on twitter @brainsonfire. With questions and comments. Good and bad. We want to hear it all.

  We’re big believers in practicing what we preach. When we wrote this book we made a solid commitment to share everything we’ve learned in an open, honest and meaningful way. (Lesson #5: Movements Empower People with Knowledge). We hope in doing so that you will find a desire to join our cause in finding meaningful ways to connect organizations and their advocates through shared passions.

  Let’s do this together.

  I saw one recent comment that made my heart sing — I think it was you @hughweber that said, “I am taking notes while I read this one.” We seriously hope you will SHARE your takeaways and ideas with all of us, Hugh. And that brings me to…

  Lesson Eleven Tuesdays.

  One way we want to make sharing easier is every Tuesday we will post a blog that will in a way, continue the book.

  We would like Tuesday’s posts to come from you – our courageous clients, readers and friends and advocates. Maybe you can share other examples of movements you’ve seen in action. Or just your key takeaways. (I shared the Bare Escentuals story with John Moore from Brand Autopsy. He asks good questions. We’d love to see other examples beyond the work we have done from you guys.)

  Send a relevant post and photos if you like to me and we’ll start collecting and sharing them on Tuesdays.

  Do you like that idea? I hope so.

  Okay. Here we go.

  Stay close.

  This should be fun. And remember, if you are reading this blog. If you get that “same tribe feeling” with Brains on Fire…remember…this is OUR book.

  Be proud.

  It took an army of true believers. Please know it is hard for me to write that line without tearing up. It’s been quite a year.

  Okay. Sappy as it sounds. I hope you know. I love you all very, very much.

  OX,
  Robbin

  Tags: Advocates, Brains on Fire; Igniting Powerful Sustainable Word of Mouth Movements, brand ambassadors, fans, Hugh Weber, Lesson Eleven, Movements
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  Chat pack Friday, living dangerously.

  Posted on August 27th, 2010 by Robbin and currently 11 commenting.

  
  Photo via flickr via Chuck Sutherland’s photostream.

  I love breaking rules. I do it all the time. Some of them small, some slightly more adventurous. It just makes me feel a little more alive and in control at the same time.

  And it’s funny. One of the reasons I think Brains on Fire is Brains on Fire is this: we challenge the rules of marketing. A lot. It’s a mindset I hope we always maintain.

  Hmmmm….

  So this Friday’s chat pack question is one I love. Ready?

  If, with your safety guaranteed, you could experience something considered very dangerous, what would you want to experience most of all?

  Me. I’d drive a car or a motorcycle or something over 200 mph. What can I say?
  
  Speed calms me.

  Now you go… come on. I need some “social media” interaction this morning.

  BTW, this will be the last chat pack Friday for while. Starting next week, we’ll have something cool planned for Friday. Stay tuned.

  Tags: chat pack friday
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  Happy client?

  Posted on August 24th, 2010 by Robbin and currently 3 commenting.

  
  Dare you to think about a baby laughing and not smile right now. Photo via flickr via five2b4u

  The other day I heard Dodds talking on the phone with a client. He walks and talks so I overheard tiny bits of the conversation.

  I asked him after he hung the phone up. “Happy client?’

  “Yes — we laugh at least once a day. “

  That made my heart sing. Just sing. We work so hard, all of us. It has to be fun. Doesn’t it?

  My motto.

  Have fun and make money.

  Not necessarily in that order.

  So how do you make the work you do more fun? How do you make it fun for your clients? Is fun a part of the new ROI?

  Tags: Fun, ROI
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  What’s your mecca?

  Posted on August 23rd, 2010 by Robbin and currently 11 commenting.

  
  Last week I had a delightful conversation with a potential new team mate.
  
  Yeah, we are thinking about hiring again. Feels really, really good to me.

  Anyway she was just super cool. You know we believe Brains on Fire is movement and so I love it when people tell me.
  
  “I have found my people.”

  That is the way you feel when you find others who share your same passions. That set of words is just so tribe like to me.

  Same tribe is another word for this feeling.

  Anyway, I asked the question, you know the one we are all taught to ask when interviewing someone. “Do you have any questions for me?’ BTW, the answer is never NO> Stupid people have no questions. Sorry to be so blunt but it’s true.. Anyway, without a doubt she asked the best question I’ve heard in a long, long time.

  “What is your mecca?” (she had read the book, page 76)

  I loved that surprisingly great question so much I had to stand up. And I think it’s helpful for everyone to answer it.

  Here’s my answer. I have so many. Just knowing that it was hard to answer made me happy.

  So… this sounds silly and self serving, but it is the truth. Brains on Fire is mecca for me. I love being here. Every. Single. Day. Surrounded by crazy smart people who share my passion for making positive change in the world. And then the clients who write me love letters on a Saturday morning. It’s just my personal mecca. We have good coffee too.

  But I also love, love fast cars. So the BMW Performance Center is a little bit of Mecca for me. When you go there, they share all kinds of cool things. I have been three times thanks to my friend Natalie and my heart races every time. Just writing this post makes my heart race. You can burn the brand new rubber off the tires and they don’t care. They just get more tires. It’s amazing. I have a BMW – a fast one and since I believe in staying safe, I don’t go over 105 on the highway. (Smiling). At the Performance Center they let you go as fast as you want. Yup. Mecca. And the female race car driver makes me believe that one day, I just might do it. She is inspirational.

  So I really want to hear your stories of mecca, will you share with me today?

  Tags: BMW Performance Center, Brains on Fire the book