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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

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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.

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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?

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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?

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  • Lifting others up. Part two or three. Or four. Who knows.

    Posted on August 17th, 2010 by Robbin and currently 12 commenting.


    This photo is from my friend Libby Williams. She took it in my sunroom. WE love her. Check out her blog.

    “Victory in marketing doesn’t happen when you sell something, but when you cultivate advocates for your brand” – Steve Knox

    Steve Knox made a huge, beautiful impact on me at the FIRE session. And set this thought rolling around in my heart and my head.

    He said that the goal of a company should be to create Trusted Advocacy. And while he spent a lot of time talking about disrupting schemas (which was awesome cool), he said something else that got my wheels spinning and really validated a lesson we have learned.

    Lesson number 9 in the Brains on Fire book to be exact.

    “Movements make advocates feel like rock stars.”     (Okay, I have said it before. Maybe rock star is not the best term, but you get the gist.)

    Steve said one of the ways to create trust is to give without expecting anything in return. (Side note: what makes a remarkable company also seems to make a great person, have you noticed that?)

    We call it lifting others up. So many companies these days want to start a community of fans. But think about it. Do we really admire those among us who are looking for fans to be their advocates or are we drawn to people who genuinely lift us up…without expecting anything in return.

    I’ll be honest, I know who I’d rather have dinner with.

    It’s a fine line.

    Don’t go searching for people (fans) to lift your business up, lift them up first. Be famous for the people who love you, for the way you love them.

    Love and recognition form a circular transaction. If you give it out, it’ll always come back to you. Trust it.

    We all on some gut level know that first hand. It flat out works in relationships and it works in business. And finally, finally we as marketers and leaders are starting to embrace the fact that creating a remarkable business is all about relationships.

    We are so very jazzed that those of your reading the Brains on Fire book are reaching out to us by email and such. It’s really a dream come true for me personally. Another dream of mine is to return the concept of love back to the corporate world. Because love is a good thing. Here’s a comment to us by email from DeRay McKesson. Who by the way gave us a ton of constructive feedback we will address soon. But here is a comment from him I cherish:

    + Love. It’s an easy topic/word to avoid and difficult to engage meaningfully. I appreciate that you did not hide behind “passion” but instead let passion co-mingle with its partner “love” throughout the text. At each point, you acknowledged the feeling part of the work of spreading messages in a way that came across as authentic. Solid.

    I woke up one morning recently to this email and it changed my life. It started like this: Dear Brains on Fire, This love is real. So yeah. Not naming names DOUGLAS, but you think we all work harder when you share that sort of thing? Well, guess what? WE all do. Whether we are abolishing sex slavery in the world, reforming high school education or selling diapers. Or scissors.

    You toss bits of love out into the universe and they come back to you. Every. Single. Time. Stay close. WE are crazy mad in love with all of you who are taking your precious time to to read this blog today. Pass it on. Will ya?

    Love and much, much gratitude,
    Robbin

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