tst ink

You can tell a lot about a city by how it lives at night

2012-01-24T22:49:00.000-08:00

When the night is up and the lights are down in the downtown core of any city in the world, its true self shows. Seattle. On a very windy Tuesday night in January. The district between Belltown, and Pike Place Market.

It's well past closing time for the ecclectic retailers - from the Steinway & Sons piano shop, to City Kitchens, to the Columbia Store, to Nordstrom. Funky pubs and eateries are winding down. And there's a good sized crowd hunkered down inside Uptown Espresso, intent on the laptop, smartphone or iPad screen before them, sipping the beverage that helped make the Emerald City famous. This cafe looks to be the living room for the apartment homes in the building next door, just one of a collection of residential buildings from 4-story mid-rises, to reclaimed historic tenements, to concrete and glass modern hi-rises, scraping the sky at 20+ stories.

This city is vibrant and alive, not in a NYC kind of way, but more like a San Francisco or a Vancouver. Walking alone I feel totally at ease. I marvel at the diversity of architecture, lit up by the street lights and the reflection of the signage in the city's core. There's an energy here that says, "we're good with it". It's evident in the design of the experience, and names of one of a kind places like Serious Pie - a pizza spot. You shouldn't need to read the menu to figure it out. Even in the rain, and tonight's fierce wind, Seattle just is. There's a quiet confidence, coupled with a wit and intellect all its own.

A crowd of homeless people gathers to sit on the ledge of the stand-alone Starbucks on 4th and Pine. During the hour I'm out walking, the crowd grows in size. One man among them has dressed his pit bull companion in a torn down vest to provide warmth from the biting wind. They all know each other, and share their own community. Inside the Starbucks, there's a young man dressed in a track suit talking with a man in a business suit. He looks to be applying for a job, or given the young man's height, possibly talking with a college basketball recruiter. Hope is written all over his face.

There are many more like me strolling the streets, mostly young couples, or groups of young people. Some clearly getting off work, or coming up out of the subway to connect on a city bus line. Some appear to be heading home from an evening class at a local college. Like the young man in Starbucks, there's a pulse and an energy here that smells of optimism. Even the mannequins in the window at Nordstrom flash forward in their bold colors, almost daring us to challenge their position that the upcoming Spring season will be better and happier than the last. I'm going with it. And I'm taking a little piece of Seattle's fresh confidence with me.

Do you create "bragging rights" for your customers?

2011-11-02T15:02:00.000-07:00

Lunch break reading today - the Sept. 26th issue of Advertising Age, and a story about auto branding at the German auto show in Frankfurt. Feeling good about the grapefruit I'm eating, my eye catches the subhead: HELPING CUSTOMERS BOND WITH THE BRAND.

If you get the chance to pick up this issue, the story on Audi's "Ring" at the show (and the $14M they spent on it) is worth a lunchtime read.

Beyond that though, it made me think about what we do in the community development and real estate business everyday. Buying a home is the most emotionally charged and likely the most expensive thing you will ever buy. A close second may be a new car.

The car business has figured out how to help customers bond with the brand. The Audi example of an indoor test drive track around the Audi Ring (nod to their logo) did it. Think of the memories, the photos, the G-force their shoppers experienced?! The space is open for smart developers and builders to offer a memorable, relevant home shopping experience to do the same thing. We are on that quest as I write.

How can we create bragging rights for our customers so they leave our discovery centers and model homes and tell their friends, "Here's this great community I just visited, and the story I've attached to it." Back to work ...

Strong brands know it's as much about what you won't do, as what you will.

2011-10-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

Lately I've had more conversations than ever with people launching a new business and creating a new brand, or trying to revive and reposition a tired brand. I'm taking it as a sign of our improving economy. And I love the dialogue because so many people, some very successful in business, see "brand" as a marketing thing. It's the logo, right? Or it's the color of their website, that matches the color on their business card. Or it's just that we need a new company story, right? That's the easy part - that's just the skin you show the world.

Brand is as much about what you don't do, as it is what you do.

In her amazing first book, "Different", that many of you have read, Youngme Moon calls the competitive marketplace today a "blur of similarity". Here's the deal I think... when things are tough and we all get scared, we look around the businesses we are in at who's doing what well and gravitate to "our version" of that same place and believe we'll be successful too. Take what's working and tweak it. This "me too" approach might work for a while, but it's not going to blow the doors off. And it's not really a new business.

Having a new idea is hard work.
What customer need is out there that you can fill? What problem or challenge do people have that your product or service can solve?
Simple is good.

If done right, creating the brand around your business idea will be about how it lives, not what colors you employ. ... If you are a quick serve cafe all about healthy refueling, what food will you absolutely not serve? ... If your business is all about human contact and personal service, what should your telephone system not do?

There are tons of great new business ideas out there. In this crazy world customers have more needs, and more specific ones than ever before. Those businesses with the guts to live their big ideas will win. And they will be the same ones who know that it's as much about what they leave out of their offering as it is what they add to it.

Look outside your industry ... how do you stack up?

2011-10-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

Spent some time today on a call with our team in Tampa, working on the customer experience we want to deliver in our new community, planned to open in mid-2012. We tossed around the usual notions of how to encourage customers to sign up with us, online and in person, so we can learn more about their home and community preferences. Not to hard sell them. Not to spam or e-blast the you know what out of them. But to help us keep learning about what matters to them, so we can continue to create communities that are relevant to changing buyers' needs, and help our customers along the exhausting and challenging home shopping journey.

Should we use tablets?
Should we use tech at all?
How can we make it simple, real time and best of all fun?
How can we integrate online and in-person among the community developer (us) and our builder partners?

As we created the amazing variety of journies our customers will take with us, trying to create a simple and easy approach became more and more complex. We are all customers too, so we inevitably referred back to those iconic customer service experiences held up as gold standards - the "blue shirts" in the Apple store, the seamless airline check-in experience, even some new examples from the automotive world. The discussion was great, and it reminded me of a few simple truths:

Customers compare you to their last best customer service experience, regardless of the industry. If you are comparing yourself within an industry, just remember... your customers aren't.

Every front of house opportunity has its share of back of house problems ... and they are all worth working through.

The kind of thinking needed to do this should make your brain hurt. If it doesn't, you likely aren't thinking hard enough.

Open for business

2011-10-18T13:23:00.001-07:00

I had an early appointment this morning before work, and arrived just in time to see the person I was meeting with arrive at her shop. She unlocked her gate, upon which hung a wooden 2-sided sign, "Open/Closed". She flipped it over and the day began.

There's something about the act of flipping over a wooden sign, from Closed to Open at the start of the day. A pace within your own control. Romantic. Tactile. Human. A signal almost lost in this always-on world we all love so much.

It's a different feeling than being in an office where the signal the day has begun is the automatic fluorescent lights turning on at the same prescribed time. Somehow the sign is more human. It doesn't happen without someone actually showing up to turn it over. The lights go on without you - whether you are ready or not. The sign, like my perfect day, waits for me.

The same can be said for the other end of the day. Lights turn out at a time determined to signal the end of a day. Whether or not you are ready, that's the time. Our programmed, timed world is efficient for sure. The metaphor of that rustic wooden sign made me stop and think about how we can keep a little bit more "human" in it.

Embrace your "back of house" and create memorable experiences

2011-10-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

On weekends when I am batching it alone, one of the things I often do is get take-out from either a favorite Thai place (yellow curry), or a great Italian place. You see, Pam doesn't do curry, and gluten in the pasta doesn't much like her either, so curry and a great pasta dish are things I don't often enjoy, reserved for the weekends she's in Canada with family.

Tonight my to go of choice was Italian, from the best little crazy Italian place, a few miles from my house and right near the beach, Trattoria I Trulli.

I have never been to Tuscany, but I imagine this place is what a real Tuscan villa would be like. Tables crammed close together. Waiters rushing back and forth, turning sideways in the tight space to avoid crashing into each other or their guests. It's loud. It's always busy. There are never enough tables, even when they spill out onto the sidewalk.

Tonight as I sipped my glass of pinot noir at the bar while waiting for my dinner I marveled at how they use their "back of house" to create a sensory front of house experience that explodes with textures, sounds, and color. The bartender handles to go orders, in addition to opening wine, mixing drinks, and preparing after dinner "two decaf cappuccinos" ordered up in passing as a waiter drops of the plates from a meal just finished and seconds later re-appears with four wine glasses, a basket of bread and dip, and wisks a bottle of red off the edge of the bar.

Waiters come and go, through the bar, seen here in this quick photo, from the kitchen to the restaurant. In my short 15-minute wait I witnessed numerous near collisions, and yet never did the pace, the energy, or the passion for what they do slow.

I love this place. It makes me think about how many other "back of house" opportunities could be embraced as part of the front of house effect to create more memorable experiences, not just in dining, but in other businesses too.

Social media puts a point on what every great brand has always done.

2011-10-11T23:05:00.000-07:00

I picked up my latest issue of Marketing Management tonight to wind down after another great day sharing the plans, vision and the new name for a community we are creating outside Seattle. Not wanting a huge commitment of time, I flipped to Don E. Schultz's column that I read with interest every issue. A short column, it's always pithy and thought-provoking. Tonight did not disappoint, but I think he missed the point.

His column talks about the whole new world we live in, where the customer has control. He asks, "Is Persuasion Dying?"

That's not the point. That hasn't been the point in meaningful, customer-focused branding for years.

I mean years. Many marketers may have only woken up to this fact in the last 3-5 years, and point to social media as the game changing reason why. But truthfully, all of us, as consumers, have been in control a lot longer than that.

What social media does I think is give those smart brands out there more opportunities to be talked about. You Tubed about. Tweeted about. The core premise of a brand, when truly used as a business asset, has and always will be a promise you make to your customers. It's never been about short-term interchangeable brand concepts that are more ad slogans than anything else, designed to persuade buyers. That's promotional marketing. That's ad copywriting. That's all good too, and it has its place.

The article asserts that social media is the reason why "having one clear, distinct, incontrovertible brand image is becoming harder and harder to develop and maintain". I don't agree at all. Social media simply gives us and our customers more channels and vehicles with which to share and communicate. And that includes communicating about powerful, great experiences we have with brands that work hard to deliver on their promise at every opportunity. It isn't an excuse to not work hard until your brain hurts to find the authentic nugget inside your company or product that connects with and matters to your customer.

That's what this crazy business has always been about. Social media has simply given us a faster, more expansive view into how we are performing as we continue the hard work each day of defining and delivering the promise of our brand. Meeting our customers' needs, while finding ways to co-create with them has always been the heavy lifting of successful businesses. Social media doesn't make it new. It just puts a big giant point on it!

Generosity is now a business model

2011-09-28T22:47:00.000-07:00

All the talk about the "double dip recession" and the catastrophic end of the free economy as we know it has gotten a little out of hand I think. I know I am not alone in saying I can talk myself into end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it disaster thinking like so many pundits, respected economists, and commentators of our times. Just read your news feeds, or try and make real sense of the markets these days. Tough to do.

I think the real answer is we never actually emerged from the "Great Recession" as it's now being called, elevated to proper noun status. We may have passed the right number of quarters with "technically" positive GDP, but it still feels pretty rough out there.

In our business, thankfully, and truly I think as a result of the amazing teams I work with all over the country, our sales so far this year are up 11% over last year at this time. We seem to be doing something right, and here's hoping we can continue it. But that doesn't replace the still general consumer malaise out there. And the more we hear and speak about catastrophic doom and gloom the more we as business leaders perpetuate that. That's the easy thing to do - talk about how bad it will get. Like cutting expenses vs. the harder work of growing revenues. That's the easy road and the obvious way.

Generosity may not be such an obvious. But watch it emerge as a defining characteristic of great companies today.

I think all of us are ready for a little bit of positive. So, here's the thing ... if the company you work for, or those you admire from the sidelines and love to watch have survived this madness, I bet there is still something at the core that makes it what it is, despite the wild ride. For some, that core is deeper and more meaningful than others. And by all accounts, consumers care about that.

They care about what you stand for, and the commitments you make (and hopefully kept) no matter what is thrown your way. People are interested in seeing how your company thinks and how you arrive at your decisions.

What do you stand for?
How do you live it?
What sacrifices have you made to give back and be generous to others during this time when it's so easy to get in line with all the negativity?
How do you show up every day?
Where do you get your inspiration from?

I am very lucky to work with some amazing people who are not only some of the smartest and most creative I know, but who have made great personal sacrifices to get us through and help us stay on top.

That is generosity in it's finest form.
And I don't think it's going anywhere any time soon. Taking a cue from how customers are acting and sharing today, the post-crisis era will be defined by inclusion rather than exclusion.

Craving Community: In all its imperfect forms

2011-08-20T21:16:00.001-07:00

I bought this pottery mug YEARS ago on Galiano Island at a quaint potter's cottage. To this day I remember following the rustic hand-painted wooden sign nailed to a tree down a windy gravel road to the cottage where the artist lived and worked. I love it and hope I never break it. I was in university at the time and this mug is one I have always reached for when cherishing a quiet morning with good coffee and a good read, whether that be the Sunday New York Times or a good book, like this morning.

This morning I finished reading Craving Community: The New American Dream by Todd Mansfield, Ross Yockey and his daughter Beth Yockey. Mansfield was President of Disney's Celebration Company for years, and also with DMB, the famed development company behind iconic Verrado and DC Ranch in Phoenix. The Yockeys are from the Seattle area and have a lot of experience with successful planned communities there including Issaquah Highlands and Northwest Landing. So as you'd expect, these oft written about communities feature heavily in this very thoughtful review of community life in America today.

Their book was great. Part memoir, part a historical review of planned community development and all its pitfalls and challenges, and part sociological journey. Those in the business will enjoy the familiar references. I loved the metaphors of "community" throughout. The greenways where annual picnics occur. The community intranets where babysitting services are shared. The "pioneering" ideas that today are the price of entry, like free WIFI in public parks and gathering spaces. But most of all I loved the chapter called "Technicolor Dreaming" and how it bravely addressed the notion of diversity in planned communities.

The authors interviewed residents in many communities about who lives there with them. The conclusion? Most said they wished there was more diversity, and not just ethnic, but people of different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. And most realized this would not be the case in planned communities as we typically know them today, because as these places to live became less affordable, they became closed to all but those who share the same economic status ... and that makes them less, not more, diverse.

While there are divergent opinions on this idea, those presented by the authors are firmly planted in the camp that more diversity is better, is more authentic and is sustainable longer term. We all start somewhere, and are at one time in our lives that young person or couple stretching to afford a home in one of these great places to live. And at the other end of it, we all become those older people who eventually need more care and have less income. The point this book makes is that communities today are not protecting against the sameness that limits this.

Seems like a HUGE white space to me, for developers and builders who can create community in all its imperfect forms, in a more inclusive and authentic way. Just like the great neighborhoods of old, where the old lady with the cat lived next door to the single mom with two kids, who lived across the street from the large Italian family, and down the block from the working professional couple with no kids and a dog.

It all comes down to space

2011-08-17T20:36:00.000-07:00

I love this photo. It's from a planning workshop I participated in today for a new community we are creating called Waterset in Tampa, Florida. We've looked at and re-worked land plans on this site for the past number of years while waiting for the right time to bring this new community to market. Small scale land plans. Large scale land plans. Different configurations of the same land plan. Color ones. And others in black and white.

We've studied the product mix and changed it to evolve with changing buyer needs, re-re-re-drawing the land plan based on what the market and buyer research told us. All the while, we had assumed the siting of homes on one of the main connector streets, adjacent to what could be either model homes or potentially builder spec homes. All the while, assuming the houses lined up a certain way along the block.

It wasn't until today, when our team of architects and planners gave us the to scale model and little wooden houses that new ways of looking at this piece of land we've studied over and over emerged. The simple "tweak" of a few homes creates a special place at the end of a block. This creates a special view and sight lines that make what we've been working on without it all make sense.

Just like back in the day when much of my time was spent creating marketing collateral and I would make myself a smaller scale paper mock-up (hand-folded and held together by simple staples most often) before I wrote a word of the copy, today I was reminded again about the power of space, and the things we can see when we play with real models in the physical world.

What to pay attention to, supply or demand?

2011-07-23T17:46:00.001-07:00

We took a drive this Saturday afternoon around some new home communities in North County San Diego, just to see what's happening. The first take away was there is something happening, in the way of new construction, which is great. One community had what appeared to be 8-10 specs under construction by two separate national builders. And this same community had a full selection of model homes to shop.

The supply seemed to be solid here. But it didn't jive with the demand at least our research, nationwide, and that of other trusted researchers have been identifying for years.

In all our travels we saw NO single-story models or specs. We saw one banner sign at Old Creek Ranch saying, "ask us about our NEW single story". But it was nowhere to be seen. We did see a few (literally less than five) completed single story homes but the elevations and architecture were seriously underwhelming. If that's my single story option, I wouldn't buy it either. Yet all the research we do, in markets from coast-to-coast shows buyers of all family types and life stages saying they would clearly prefer single story homes. The only buyer group where this is not the case in an overwhelming way is the mature family (those with teens they likely want some space from).

So here's the question... if builders keep building the same two story homes, that's all there is to buy. And the buying of them doesn't mean that's what the buyers want. It just means that's all we are offering them. I get it that some of these communities are land plans that are just emerging from the horrific housing recession with lot sizes dug into the bedrock, and not large enough to support innovative single story living.

Maybe we just need to get this inventory moved on through the pipeline and exhaust this supply, before we see a response to true buyer demand and take the product innovation risk to create a new, innovative product buyers say they want. For now, I am taking with a huge grain of salt any stats that tell me most buyers are still buying two story homes, 2,500 - 3,900sf ... because that's all I can see we are offering them right now.

Service or a commodity?

2011-07-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

When the next greatest thing is lined up to replace the thing you just bought, it would seem that brands based on service and particularly good, or compelling customer service have a sustainable competitive advantage over those that offer product-based features that can be copied or improved upon.

So what about those "service" businesses that have a low cost of entry (whether price, or emotional) and arguably offer very similar products and services as the next guy? How do they sustain customer commitment when they don't constantly release the newest greatest version? These businesses occupy a space that is service-based for sure, but if not careful, the "product" they offer can be thought to be very much the same as one down the street at the next place. Here's what I mean ...

While it would be tough to get most of us to change hair stylists (high emotional price of entry) what about nail salons or coffee shops? Sure they offer products of course, but their business model is based on offering a certain customer service. I have my favorite nail place now (those who know me from previous lives are laughing out loud hysterically now), and when I've been rushed for time and not near my nail place, I've gone to another, thinking, what could the difference really be right? Same deal with coffee places - I have my favorite weekend Starbucks. There are two others within a one mile radius, and on those occasions when it's just been more convenient to go to one of them, it's just not the same.

So what is it about these largely commoditized service businesses that makes the difference? It's the memory of previous interactions and exchanges we've shared that creates a common knowledge. It's that the women at the nail salon know I am from Canada and ask about when my next trip home will be, then proceed to tell me the latest about their cousins who live there, or the road trip they once took up to Vancouver from San Diego, 20 hours long. It's the woman at my Starbucks who remembers my drink and when I divert from it, asks me why and weaves it into a fun conversation with a vibe all her own.

It's connection. I will drive for that. I will put off my nails for a week rather than take a risk, on what truly is a low cost item, that my experience won't be what I want. Customer service, and a true, authentic, meaningful connection to the customer can turn even commoditized purchases into competitive advantage.

Marketing today: the best of both sides of the brain

2011-07-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those days where I used every inch of my brain at work. The left side spent a chunk of time analyzing home sales absorption pace, calculating cost increases and thinking about projecting inflation rates. And it hurt. The right side earned its keep today envisioning the customer experience we will create in a new community, and thinking about the power of the subtlety of words chosen for the planning principles that will drive the development and creation of the same community.

As I sat in traffic driving home I thought back over the path of my life and how I ended up here in a senior marketing role. The only non-medical person in a family of well-accomplished doctors (all with PhDs or very focused specialties) ... I have my four year undergrad ... I never quite fit the family mold. But as marketers go, I pride myself on being one of the lucky ones who covets the balance between expansive "how might we" creativity and an almost forensic love of the analytical detail.

So, I may not be able to operate on an eye to save someone's sight, or save a trauma patient in the ER, or manage highly complex drug therapies for a rare auto-immune disease. That much is for sure.

But I can thank whomever and whatever got me here for the awesome opportunity being a marketer today provides to test the creative and analytical sides of my brain. It's a precious balance, and one that keeps each day interesting.

Casual Gaming. Big Escape. Bigger Money.

2011-07-12T23:12:00.000-07:00

News broke today that Electronic Arts is acquiring the mobile game creator, PopCap, for $650M, and additional stock and performance bonus options that take the price up to $1.2B.

Wow. Big money for the mobile games, casual entertainment space. Bejeweled is one of PopCap's most popular assets, and with this acquisition it joins Angry Birds (from Chillingo) under EA's growing ownership.

Whether waiting at the doctor's office, or for your carpool buddy to join you on the ride home, or when attending a boring speaker at a conference, or waiting to pick the kids up at school, there's nothing casual about casual mobile games. They are ubiquitous and obviously fill a void. Space. Time. Easy escape. Whatever this void is, the value continues to increase.

What happened in days of old before handheld devices created a captive market for new casual games? I remember the very rare occasions I took an airplane trip as a kid, and buying word search and crossword puzzle books to pass the time. or MAD comics, and the Archie Digest. Same deal. Different time. Different media. And I would bet a whole lot less profit.

Find a void to fill.
Create a product that sticks.
And sell to the highest bidder. Then enjoy the ride until another innovation comes up to fill that space we humans need to constantly fill up with stuff like Bejeweled that exists to just give us a break.

Gen Y Purchase Preferences = A Real Shift in Desires

2011-07-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

Saw this recent data dump on the car purchases made in 2009 and 2010 by Gen Y buyers http://yhoo.it/nZaghd and though not one to take the "fear" side of the argument, in that decision makers in Detroit need to fear for their future, the parallels to what we see in housing preferences are solid.

Gen Y prefers smaller, less expensive (and that translates in more cases than not into foreign) cars. In our customer research on home shoppers in America we see the same thing - they tell us they want smaller houses, less expensive houses, but houses that are all about style and living the way they want to live.

Who's out there NOT saying to themselves, "When will it come back to the good old days? When will this economic shift get behind us and we can get back to building bigger homes, more of this and that? We know this is just a cycle and it will swing around again."

Those leaders and industries who are NOT looking in the rear view mirror and longing for a tired and irrelevant past will benefit from this forever-changed world. What a cool opportunity. Bring it on!

Facebookers organize post-riot clean up event

2011-06-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

It's 8am and already 12,000+ people indicate they are attending an event communicated on Facebook to clean up last night's mess.

http://on.fb.me/lfPyNp

THAT's the Vancouver the world knows and loves. Again, the power of the social media community

Social media called on to assist police in Vancouver riot

2011-06-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

It was a hockey game people. Not a war for food or clean water. Or standing up for personal rights and freedoms. It was a hockey game.

How embarrassing and stupid. The blight of 1994's riot was behind us, and the Winter Olympics last year were peaceful, celebratory and a beautiful display on the world stage.

Now this.

As we worried for family who were among the crowds in the streets of Vancouver, and searched for whatever coverage we could find from San Diego, social media, and Facebook specifically, took its rightful place as an organizing tool.

http://on.fb.me/muLnRn

People from all over are using this page not only to express their frustration and shock at the disrespect shown by a minority of rioters (NOT fans), but more importantly, they are using it to post pictures taken at the scene and asking anyone who knows these people to tag them and assist police in bringing them to justice.

Let's hope the power of this amazing social network works. It's enabled "prosumers" to create content. This time it shows people that in the greater community at large, whether that's the city of Vancouver, or the social media community, your public behavior, now more than ever is just that - public.

Just follow the signs...

2011-06-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday night, and I am in Seattle (ok, technically at the moment, Tacoma). Tonight's travel experience reminded me yet again of the importance of signs. Not just having them, and placing them in places where customers will hopefully see them, but thinking like a customer, putting yourself in the mindset of someone who needs to actually use the signs to navigate. It sounds so easy right?

The flight from San Diego was easy and uneventful. We landed in Seattle at the farthest gate from the exit of course, but no issues. First stop, restroom. Easy, it was clearly marked. Next stop, rental car.

Intuitively I knew it must be out near Baggage Claim, though no signs for rental cars appeared as we exited the secured zone. Our leap of faith paid off and we found the parkade with the rental cars and a moving marquee sign that listed a number of car companies as being on the 1st floor (there were 4 floors in the rental parkade). National was one of them, and we had a reservation with them for an SUV so we could travel the many miles up and down the I-5, and all the connecting highways in the submarkets we would spend the next two days exploring.

At this point, my travel companion Jane said to me, " that was smooth and easy". She and I have had too many trips together where we have gotten lost getting out of the airport, mostly in Houston. One year we were there on business more than 10 times, and got lost every time. It's a city where highways have multiple choice names, and directions.

I digress. Tonight we are in Seattle, on the 1st floor of the rental car parkade, following the sign that says, "National, Row P". There is one SUV left, and as we were loading our bags into it, a woman who works for National walked over to confirm we had an SUV reservation. We did, with the "Emerald" (read: VIP) version of National.... which is one floor up on the 2nd floor. Lacking emotion and energy Jane tried to explain there was no sign indicating that. The woman in green started to argue, and soon thought better of it, but maintained that yes, there was a sign, in the elevator.

That would mean you would need to know to get into the elevator. Nowhere among the signage we followed to get us this far did we see special mention that Emerald was on the 2nd floor.

As we schlepped our bags back through the parkade, re-tracing the signage we had followed, and arriving at the elevator, the 2nd floor wasn't even on the list of options. Another leap of faith, we get into the elevator and there in 12pt type is National, and then in 8pt type beneath it, "Emerald - 2nd floor".

Yes, there was a sign. But not along our path of travel which meant it was useless to us in our wayfinding effort. Think about all the paths of travel your customers take. Think about their frame of mind, and other things they are thinking about when trying to navigate their way through your business.

Jane and I found our SUV, loaded our bags once again and headed out for the 1-5 south. Thankfully, there is only one road out of the rental car parkade and the directions all along the way were clear and easy. We found our way to the hotel without one wrong turn. We just followed the signs...

What the numbers tell us, and what do we do with that?

2011-06-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

Numbers. Added up, multiplied, calculated as a percentage of another number, and re-run through any number of filters. Usually this is done to measure something, project something, prove a point, or to tell a story.

If you are a hockey fan, and more precisely a Vancouver Canucks fan, you may have seen the stat I did this morning, that when it comes to the final round of Stanley Cup Finals and one team is up 2-0 over another in this best of seven series, the team that is up has gone on to win the cup 42 of 46 times. I want to believe, and I don't want to jinx them!

(just 30 minutes from the start of game three as I write this, I can only imagine the energy in the heart of Vancouver tonight)

Then there's the other side. When the numbers being published by the experts and pundits don't agree with your reality. That's the case for me right now, with the prolonged and some are predicting double dip in the US housing recession. In the media, it's all dire and sad news, one depressing prediction after the next.

Perhaps it's just me, but the energy in the American people doesn't seem to jive with this. No question, it's still scary out there, and the term "jobless recovery" seems painfully accurate for many. But the continued crunching of numbers to show the same negative story is getting me, and many others down.

For our business, and in our communities, we have had some stellar home sales results not only during the first quarter, but the past 30 days as well. One community posted its best sales result ever since opening in 1991, another posted its best month since March 2006. And yet another posted the biggest increase in a 30-day period since June 2007. Many others are way up over this time last year, with one community already 3 sales away from their total annual sales pace last year, with still half a year remaining.

So here's the thing. Numbers point the way, sometimes even paint the way. But they can also lag reality sometimes. I hope for the Canucks tonight that's not the case. And I hope for the US housing market our strong sales are joined by the same on the part of many others, so we can put the bad news tales behind us, and adjust to a long-term more sustainable though still positive and optimistic reality. At the very least, I am hoping for a little more curiosity and deeper analysis beyond the first layer of economic indicators. The results are there - you just have to look for them.

Apple pie

2011-06-04T08:44:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday morning and Pam is making her famous home-made pastry for her yummy apple pie. What is it about apple pie that just says "family"? Cinnamon, lemon, sugar and hand-rolled pastry with love. Nothing store-bought.

It's the food version of one of her quilts or a sweater she's knitting. No two are the same. Each ingredient chosen carefully.

Tonight is the next game in the Stanley Cup finals and we are having friends over to help us cheer for the Vancouver Canucks. Dinner is planned. Wine is ready. But there's something about an apple pie that puts a cap on the meal.

It says more than any meal I could make, "you are family and we love having you in our home".

Screens for our perceptions

2011-05-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day in the USA today. For this Canadian it's another chance to feel grateful for the opportunity to experience life in this country. So similar in many ways to the country of my birth, and still so different. This is a recurring theme I spend a lot of time thinking about.

We have the same language(s) for the most part. We both use the dollar as our currency. We share a continent, and a couple of seas.

In the US the November 11th holiday is called Veteran's Day. In Canada it's called Remembrance Day. Same basic reasons, and not too dissimilar from the reason for today being Memorial Day - to remember and honor those who served.

So here's something I think a lot about... where you are from, how you are raised how you see yourself, and how others tell you you are all contribute to how you construct your reality. Mine is different from yours. And yours is different from the person you live with. Not wrong, just different.

As we remember those who served today I'm offering up the idea that we also remember and honor the ways different cultures, and different regions construct our individual reality and remember that is what acts as a screen for our perceptions of the world.

Happy Memorial Day all. To all our differences that make this world the engaging place it is. Thanks for sharing yours with me.

Starwood Preferred Guest Card - making it my own

2011-05-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

I signed up last week for a new Starwood Preferred Guest card when staying at their downtown Phoenix property. Seems my old card was one of the casualties from my move to San Diego from Vancouver, Canada. I received my new card in the mail before I returned from my 2-night stay, personalized, even with the correct spelling of my name.

A day later I received an email offering me the opportunity to visit this site: http://bit.ly/kjCHvV and customize my card. I could choose a resort destination photo, a completely individual quote of my own, and a vacation icon or flag and make this newest travel loyalty card my very own.

I did it, and they promised to mail me my card version in a couple of days.

I travel a lot, and notice the little things hotel brands are doing to differentiate themselves. It's no secret that on check-out I told the front desk person that my stay last week was one of the best in a hotel anywhere this year. Their attention to detail, to personal service and to making every attempt to ask and listen to my comments was top notch. So while I was somewhat surprised to be offered the chance to personalize a card I likely won't use as much as my Starbucks card or iTunes card, it was a totally on brand move by a company clearly trying to deliver authentically personalized service.

And there's the potential now that I'll use it more than originally thought...

Is community more than physical?

2011-05-18T23:22:00.000-07:00

At the ULI Spring Meeting in Phoenix and I joined in a brief conversation tonight about this very issue. If we are the "Community Development Council" that means we develop community. There is apparently some debate as to whether this is the right name for this group of esteemed and experienced real estate development professionals. At the root of it - whether or not it connotes the fact that community is a physical thing that is created.

There is after all only so much land, and what does it mean about the future of our business if there are no more communities to develop?

Good and interesting discussion for sure. I think we need to broaden the view and the lens through which we look at what we do. Community is more than master planned greenfield developments. It can be vertical community, in the form of a highrise. It can be urban renewal communities in the form of regenerated urban infill. It can even be something more than physical completely.

It can be those of us on the bus this evening who began the discourse of looking within our industry and asking ourselves what it is we believe community to be.

Sunday shopping conversations

2011-05-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

Every week, on Sundays, I do my weekly shopping run. It usually involves at least three stops: Trader Joes, Stater Brothers (grocery store) and Pet People. Today was no different. First stop was Pet People and it was here that I realized I was about to participate in a store clerk-customer-ritual, talking about the weather.

It usually starts with, "How's your day going so far?" or the simple, less committed, "How are you?" and then it goes from there very quickly to the weather. I know these people well, I see them every Sunday morning. Today, Darren at the pet store lamented that the sun had come out only briefly and then gone away behind the clouds. He then proceeded to further lament that we can't have another summer like last (no sun, plenty of gray, and too much rain). He'd clearly been thinking about it though, and compared early May weather this year to last, coming up with a formula in his mind for why this summer was sure to be a better one.

We talked for a few moments after he'd bagged my tins of dog food, like we knew each other (we kind of do) but still about the weather and his forecasting system.

On to TJ's and the same thing - talking about the weather with the clerk as he scans and I help bag. He caught me off guard though, which I loved, with a question so personally specific I wasn't ready for it. Maybe that's it - the weather is safe, and though specific, not so in a personal way. It's generic in its specificity. Anyone can talk about it without needing to go into the personal details of one's life, and still make a connection. And specific enough that you can both relate to it.

My friend at TJ's asked me, "What's been the best thing about your weekend so far"? Wow. Did he really want to know? Seemed so. I told him it had to be that my 13 1/2-year old dog who'd been sick since Thursday seemed to be a little better this morning. She's a precious soul, and that was the best thing by far. He asked more and I told him. Then I learned that today was his Monday, and he apologized for being a little dazed as he got back into the swing of a new week. He seemed on his game to me, and I left having had the chance to make a human connection over something deeper than just the weather.

Salesman tries the cram down and loses any chance

2011-05-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

Acute back pain that becomes chronic has to be among the worst things in life. It affects everything. You can't sit. You can't sleep. You can't do much of anything. Trust me, Pam's had this now for 6 weeks. It's not pretty.

Since her life involves sitting in her chair at work for 11-12 hours at a time, last week we decided to explore the idea of a special supportive office chair at Relax the Back in Encinitas. Sunday morning, two sales guys are on - one sitting in a massaging chair and the other greeted us, reeking of stale smoke and seeming a little pissed he had to be there.

Here's an account of customer service that I thought I'd never have to suffer through again, with all the focus on the customer, and the importance of any customer and any sale during this economic hazing. He went from standoff-ish and impatient to trying to help. Showed Pam many chair options from $600 to more than $1,200. All the while, we discussed the fact she'd need to get our employer's approval to bring a new chair to work, for WCB reasons. HINT: not likely to walk out of the store with one today, but could be a returning customer.

One was too short in the seat. One had a back support that worked, but an angle that didn't. And so on. There was no one else in the store. Still, we were aware of the fact the sales guy was hot on a sale and we weren't going to deliver, so didn't want to waste his time. About 8 minutes in, Pam spotted an ergonomic seat cushion on the wall. Price? $60. We discussed buying it, since she'd need chair approval anyway, maybe this was an interim option.

Sales guy, after doing nothing to offer her the chance to try it, and doing all he could to not tell us the price says, "It might work, but if you ask me, really you should invest in a good chair for the long term." No kidding. He's paid to sell. What he forgot in that critical moment was that includes the $60 seat cushion. And it includes listening to and understanding your customer's constraints so you can be there "for the long term".

We walked out of the store, and Pam said, "I think that cushion might have helped, but there's no way I am buying it from that guy." Wow. He lost the sale. And that store forever lost two customers in a textbook example of not listening to your customer.

Customers help design new product innovations at Lululemon

2011-04-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

... and some tweaks to some old favorites. This, another observation from my recent visit to their Robson St. store in Vancouver, was particularly impressive. Much more than a one-sided token attempt to make themselves look like they care what you think, this simple low-tech chalkboard was a hive of insight.

"more flow-n-go tanks"

"mens CHIEF shirts"

"a wunder underpant with a groove waste band so it won't fall down"

"bigger chest pocket in men's hoodies for iphone (don't want to have to cram it)"

"Lululemon bathing suits"

Imagine the consumer research savings and the faster time to market this leading brand achieves through this simple approach. Not to mention the good will it engenders in customers who feel heard and given a chance to share their ideas.

This is brilliant, and another example of how Lulu lives their brand and creates an experience in every little detail to bring it to life in their own unique way.

Lululemon brand experience - alive, well, and meaningful in their Robson St. Vancouver store

2011-04-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

Lululemon, the healthy lifestyle brand displays this fun, organic piece of advice outside the door to the change room in their Vancouver Robson St. store. I love it! As you shop for and try on Lululemon wear this message makes you stop and think about the small things you can do to live a healthier life (achievable with or without the $92 sweat pants/leggings you are about to buy). Totally on-brand. And not something you'd see down the street at the Roots store or the Nike store.

What it says to me, is this brand cares about their customers and about living their brand promise in every tiny little detail.

How many other branded environments have you experienced lately where you've felt that to be the case? I know I am anxious to check out a few of my favorite grocery stores now to see if this diagram proves true. I'm sure the likes of Paco Underhill, who has spent a lifetime studying store design and product placement could tell us why this is. But thanks go to Lululemon for pointing it out.

Plane Brain Manifesto

2011-04-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

Plane time is thinking time for me. This morning the flight that afforded this brain time was to Seattle, then on to Vancouver to see the family for Easter - the nieces, and nephew - can't wait.

Perhaps it's the crazy times we've faced in business the past few years. Or perhaps it's the continual changes in the world of marketing - from new technologies that require us to participate with customers differently than ever before, to the changing role of brands. Whatever the motivator, some semblance of a manifesto came to mind today and I wanted to share it now. I'm still not sure if it's a manifesto on the creative life, or just on life itself.

I'll be thinking and exploring these ideas a lot more in my quiet thinking time over the next while.

Ride down the middle of the road and you will get crushed. Venture out. Touch the edges.

Stretch.

Get out an observe. See things and experience things you don't usually do.

Be relevant. Be observant. Engage.

Get into the customer's business. Understand what matters and what success looks like. Care. Contribute. Challenge. Track an issue, and the conversation.

Tell me what you think. Don't always agree with me. Please bring your different experiences to our shared one.

Read. Learn. Breathe fresh air.

Have a similar work ethic. And a different point of view. Bring both every day when you show up.

Screw the excuses and the reasons why not. Chase challenges and dish up the solutions.

Do you really need all that "stuff"?

2011-04-18T20:53:00.001-07:00

An article from Smart Money Magazine appeared this morning in my news feed. It's about aging Boomers coping with the inevitability of getting rid of all their "stuff" as they decide to downsize or simplify life. The point of the article (link below) is with so many people entering the stage in life when they are deciding to simplify, the market (and value) of the stuff is dropping. Simple laws of supply and demand. The more stuff, the more supply. The more supply, the lower the value.

I guess many of these sellers of stuff were counting on it for some added value in their retirement accounts. That won't be the case if grandma's old upright piano fetches $11 as the article claims. I read with interest the hypothesis that many of these aging Boomers are buying smaller homes - we see a lot of that each day in our communities. And there's the school of thought that says the American Dream of home ownership is changed forever and many are choosing not to buy again, if they can sell what they own. There are opinions and arguments to be made on both sides of both of these.

What I'm interested in is the longevity of "stuff" going forward. What matters most today? With our consumer culture of planned obsolescence where today's new release of almost anything is outdated almost as soon as the hard-to-open packaging is discarded, what is our relationship to material things? How deep is our relationship to these goods and things? Is a wedding gift of a silver tea service as coveted as funds toward an experiential honeymoon? If so, will there come a time, 40 years from now, when the married couple looks around and realizes they don't have a sterling silver flatware set to pass to the next generation? Or will new kinds of family traditions begin to emerge, less tied to things, and more tied to something else?

Read the article that spurred this thought here:

http://bit.ly/dJe8H9

A generational imprint + shifting perspective

2011-04-17T09:04:00.001-07:00

We are enjoying a visit with a 22-year old member of our family, from out of town. He's a smart guy, in his third year of university. Curious about the world around him and pretty perceptive overall. In generational terms he fits smack in the middle of "Generation Y", also called the "Millenials". There have been tomes written about his generation, interpreting all manner of research studies over the years.

We've had some great conversations and he's afforded us a peak through his window on the world. Fascinating. The absence of technology for anyone older than Gen Y has given us a whole different vocabulary. Like postage.

We were talking about a card that arrived in the mail, and he had no idea that the postage to get it here was the number on the stamp of the envelope. He asked me how much the stamp cost and how we knew. I explained the concept of postage and the differing value depending on origin and destination. He asked me how much more than the stamp postage cost. It was not something in his reality. His is a generation driven by technology in every way. "Snail mail" letters are not just a thing of the past, they are a thing that doesn't exist in current vocabulary. His birthday wishes come as e-cards or e-mails, his Mother's Day wishes are a phone call or a text, and all his banking is done online, no checks mailed to cover a payment.

I learned a lot from this short conversation and haven't stopped thinking about it since. His view on the world is no lesser or greater than mine - it's just different. Nothing can be taken for granted. If you are a boss, colleague or teacher of someone with a different generational imprint than you, listen, be patient and seek to understand. Look at the world from the outside-in, and it may reveal some new opportunities you'd miss if you march ahead, looking only through the window you know.

Consumer Trends & Street Fairs

2011-04-12T06:31:00.000-07:00

At the Encinitas Stret Fair this weekend I noticed a few things different than last year's fair. There were fewer vendors selling handmade soaps and organic soy candles. Down from four soap booths to one, and down from three candle booths to two. There were even more unique food choices than in previous years, including a true wood-fired pizza oven complete with tall chimney, hauled out to the fair on a flatbed truck and set up with attention to retail design that rivals some of the most incredible branded store experiences, complete with chalkboard menu.

There were the health-testing booths, seemed like more of them as well. And what appeared a corresponding decrease in the "custom-designed jewelry" options and stone art on a string. But the most obvious difference to me was the huge increase in the number of vendors selling handmade totally unique dog collars and leashes. Full disclaimer: dogs are a huge part of my reason for existing, but still, my friends attending the fair with me pointed this out before I had done the math, after the fourth such booth. By the end of covering the entire street, we'd seen five total, plus the vendor who had so obviously knocked off the idea from Bert and John Jacobs of Life is good T-shirt fame with their "Life is Dog" booth. My favorite thing they were selling? The T-shirt that read, "It's all fun and games until somebody ends up in a cone".

Follow the logic for a moment that street fair vendors and the artists/entrepreneurs are on the front edge of consumer trends - their livelihood depends on it. Arguably the things one finds at these fairs are for the most part discretionary and emotional treasures. So this year's increase in dog gear means something.

Interesting that just a few days earlier in the week we reviewed a consumer research report for a new community we are creating, and despite having asked the question on similar surveys all over the country for many years, "dog park" actually came up as a top preferred amenity for the first time. Comfort in these crazy times? If I take to heart the wares of the fair ... hug your furry friends, lose yourself in the affordable tasty pleasures of some funky foods, and pay attention to your blood sugar!

How does a poet see what others miss?

2011-04-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

WINDOW

What the oven is to the baker,
so the window is to the poet.
An entry point into observation.
A place through which to chase a thought.
The opportunity for reflection,
of either love or maybe loss.
Sometimes in longing, others in despair.
A poet looks through the window -
to comprehend what's there.

Reflections on a simple day off.

2011-04-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

What's life worth if you can't step back from it occasionally and just observe?
How can you feel the power of context if you don't put yourself in different places?
In the eye of the storm, days may seem very long, but the years are getting shorter. My recent birthday brings that home even more. And even this quadruple type-A personality's tank gets a little empty now and then.

So for the first time in I can't recall how long (other than recuperating from surgery, which just doesn't count) I took a simple day off just for me. No family obligations. Just a day for me. Here's what I now know to be true, after this simple day:

The best time to shop for groceries is Monday morning. Everything's fresh and you can park closer.

There are gold specks in the sand on the beach. They are the same color gold I see in my bangs, blown into my eyes by the ocean breeze.

Two flocks of cormorants can fly directly at each other, bank on the wind and miss any wing or other contact completely. Perfect engineering in motion.

Their shadows fly up the side of the cliffs, the shape of the land making it appear they are turning inland, when they are really flying straight up the coastline. Imperfect human perception at work, fooled by the shape of the earth.

People are happier when they walk the beach, including the woman who exclaimed, "I found a bonanza" as she passed me, her hands full of barnacle-encrusted shells and rocks. I found my own 1/4 mile further down the beach, in a piece of corral with tide-worn shells attached.

The public restroom at the beach makes a perfect pit stop for motorbike riders - in and out in under 5 minutes and no need to buy a coffee to feel polite. Note to self on our next ride.

The waves keep coming.

I can see, smell and hear more than usual. And it took me less than a morning to turn down the velocity, and turn up the observations.

The unapproachable English language

2011-02-13T15:44:00.000-08:00

It was about 15 minutes into my first pedicure of the season, in prep for my beach vacation, when the Vietnamese woman doing my nails looked up at me and said, "Can I ask you a question?". She's a friendly woman, about my age, who more than half the times I treat myself to this indulgence, is the one who does my nails. So we've talked many times before. She knows I am originally from Canada, and has told me of her cousins who live there. So the way she asked the question caught me a little, and I thought it must be something personal. I listened.

"You know the show The Bachelor? I watch the show and they say something I don't know what it means. She say, 'I don't wear my heart on my sleeve'. I don't understand," she says as she motions with her chin to the sleeve of her blouse (her hands were in the basin at my feet). I explain it means the character is not openly showing her emotions, but rather keeping them in check. Her face lights up with a smile as she thanks me. I can see her working this new meaning around in her head, when she says, "It means she hides". Yes, that's right, I confirm.

A few minutes pass and she says, "I didn't know you were coming today, or I have lots of questions. I keep a list and write them down". I told her she can ask me anything, but she says she didn't bring her list, and continues on to say she doesn't feel she can ask most people her questions because she doesn't want to disturb them. I told her I would answer anything and not to worry about disturbing me.

As I sat in the massaging chair and watched my new nails take shape I thought about the notion of approachability and why someone would give off the air that they weren't, to someone like this who clearly just wanted to learn.

A few more minutes passed and she looked at me and said, "For me, speaking English I feel frustrating". I empathized and told her it's a very difficult and unapproachable language, especially when it comes to these strange colloquiallisms like wearing one's heart on a sleeve. Her smile and nod told me she didn't understand "colloquiallism" - and stupid me had no more accessible way of describing it.

She then asked me, "Are upset and frustrating the same or different"? I explained that, to me, "upset" means more like "sad", and "frustrating" can have a bit of "anger" in it - carefully choosing my words to be both meaninful but hopefully approachable to her. She smiled again and said, "Then to me, when I want to speak English and they can't understand I feel upset, not frustrating".

We had made a connection for sure. She thanked me for helping her. I thanked her too, for reminding me to stop and recognize how challenging an unapproachable world can be. And I resolved to continue to do my part to help change that.

Why does making something feel so good?

2011-02-12T11:57:00.001-08:00

To make.
To bring into existence by shaping or changing material, combining parts, etc. To make a scarf; To make a work of art.
To produce, to cause to exist or happen, to bring about. To make war; To make love.
To cause to be or become. To make a new friend; To make someone happy.
To put in the proper condition or state, fix, prepare. To make a bed; To make a great pasta sauce.

That's the meaning behind it all, but what about the feeling behind it all? How GOOD does it feel to make a great dinner for someone after a long day? Or how about watching someone who's worked for a week on a new scarf pull that last stitch through? Or the new energy and new discoveries that come with making a new friend? Or making a great turn on your motorbike? Or making your way in a new city? Or making that tight deadline and still producing your best!

What about just making time for someone, to listen or talk. Or making time to coach and teach a new skill, or refine a tired old one? There's something sweet and special hidden in that very simple word, to "make". Pollyanna positive? Maybe.

But what's behind these positive emotions wrapped up in "make"? I've made it a point to observe this in friends and colleagues the past couple of weeks, in anticipation of this post. Here's what I've seen...

To some it's a sense of personal accomplishment.
To others it's a gift they give and feel good because of it.
To others it's a sense of self-expression, of definition almost.
To others it seems more about confidence, overcoming something they hadn't before. (this would be me, making anything that has instructions, directions, or requires tools of any sort).

Whatever the individual motivation, one thing I have observed for sure - making time, making things, making the grade when you haven't before - it's a power-packed little word with a lot of potential.

What's behind taste and preference?

2011-01-23T17:07:00.000-08:00

Are you a dramatic, exotic bird of paradise? A simple, happy daisy? Or a fine lacy heather? These three different flowers grow wild along the side of Quail Garden Road, and I get to enjoy them on my morning walks. Each beautiful in its own way, and oh so different. What makes someone prefer one over the other? I have a definate preference and I suspect most people do.

Line me up next to someone with the same background, same age, same gender, same career, same stage in life, and yet it's very likely we'd both pick a different flower. The choice of a preferred flower may be no big deal, but think about the places where the aesthetic of taste has big financial impacts. Line me and that person who appears so similar to me again and ask us to pick a car, a pair of shoes, a color of paint, or any numer of consumer goods and we'll behave like the individuals we are.

Each with our own sense of taste. Not just members of some demographic group (which of course we are), but individual people with our own personal taste and preference. So for product designers and communicators everywhere our jobs depend on an understanding of this illusive aesthetic of taste.

I'm left wondering about that illusive chicken and egg debate. Does something become popular when it's liked? Or is it liked because it's popular. That's a matter of taste I guess. For now, I'm enjoying my dramatic and exotic bird of paradise.

Will you take yours standard or do you prefer customized?

2011-01-19T20:50:00.000-08:00

It's the age of the customer, and they are in control, right? Right. I've been reflecting this past week on the number of ways, opportunities, products and experiences impacted by that frame of reference. More often than not it shows up as an "either/or" equation. Take homebuilding for example ... it's EITHER the 300 home/market/year national builder OR the 65 home/market/year more regional builder. The differences get further explained like this. The national can build homes faster, often less expensively, with more standardization. The regional may take a little longer, be more open to adapting to buyer requests, and in some cases it may cost a little more. This comparison is courtesy of Matt Jones, partner of Sabal Homes, as quoted in the January issue of BUILDER magazine. See page 147.

There are degrees of black, white and grey in this comparison for sure, as some of the best builders in the country are wrestling with. Whatever the space, or industry product-based comparisons are easier to identify than some others. But they are everywhere...

Take services. It's always peeved me as a client when requesting a proposal or an overview of services to be provided by an ad or PR agency when I get a templated response to a request. {Pull out last proposal with standard language and insert new potential client name here}. Ok, so it's just the start of the relationship, and it may result in zero new business, but show me you care, and that you want to dance baby! Show me a little interest and understanding of my unique problem or business opportunity. Show me you can customize your approach in this first moment of truth. I'm not saying give it all away, but don't just show me the standard. That's just boring, and easy. It's not an "either/or". Just like the homebuilder example, there are shades of grey.

Take medicine. My brother the pharmacist has drilled the importance of "evidence-based drug therapy" into my brain. So in medicine the paradigm would be follow the protocol (standardize) or personalize (customize) the care for the patient. That could get tough. Every human body is different and will react to the most tried, tested and true drug therapy differently, but the theory is the protocol gives physicians and pharmacists a place to start.

So maybe that's it - standard is just a place to start. It's a repository of knowledge and learning. Trial and error, and evolution over time. It could be the sweet spot visible only if you can embrace the ramped up, customer-driven speed of evolution.

DR Horton's authentic, personal follow-up ... there IS hope!

2011-01-09T16:12:00.001-08:00

Just got a call back to a customer information card I filled out when visiting DR Horton's Alegria model in Palm Desert in November. It was the first EVER call back I've received after completing one of those forms in a model home. True story. And you can bet I have visited and shopped hundreds (ok, so I don't always) give a real number but most times I do.

Imagine my surprise when my iPhone rings, it's a 760 number that I don't recognize, and I answer it to be greeted with, "Hello Teri?". This is the first clue that it's potentially a sales call - the caller is tentative about my name. I go with it. Yes, it's me.

Marcie from DR Horton deserves huge kudos for sensing my pace and matching it. She had unapologetic confidence but played to her customer - me. Her first statement was "You visited us a while back. Now, I wasn't here when you came in, but you work for a builder as well right?" Wow. Not exactly, I work for Newland, a developer, but I am seriously impressed that she says she wasn't there, but is taking the time today to make a connection with me. Now I am listening.

She proceeded to ask me if I am looking to purchase a second home. I told her we were just beginning, when if I am totally truthful it's more likely that we were curious about the new product being put up in a development that stalled just as the housing recession caused so much grief. In any event, I tell Marcie yes, we are just in the early stages, not sure what our real plans are. Not missing a beat, or getting desperate, or trying to close me when that's clearly not my intent, Marcie is a pro.

She again acknowledges when we were there by saying, "I think when you were out we had just started on our new phase. Now it is much further along and we'd love to have you back out to visit us again." That was her ask, subtle, and related to the specific timing and phase of construction of the project when I last visited. She continues and tells me if I am interested there is still time to select flooring in these units, and DR Horton has added some nice upgrades.

No pressure, just acknowledgement. I thanked her, and hung up feeling that was a great exchange. It may seem small, but here are the take aways from me that Marcie delivered:

She knew me: when I was out to visit, where I work, and that I own a home.
She made an offer that related to me, not her: If I am interested I can still select flooring
She listened: No pushines, no threat to call back later, just clear, pleasant exchange of information

Bottom line ... she left me with the information that this particular development is healthy and proceeding, she didn't try and force me into anything, nor did she give me a sense she was at all desperate. She simply listened and used what she heard to tell her story. Awesome.

And for those so inclined, Alegria is a very cool single-family attached product with great amenities already in, located just off I-10 at Cook, and Frank Sinatra in Palm Desert. Comfortable floorplans, high level of fit and finish and well-priced. Check it out. Great job Marcie, thanks for a fabulous follow-up experience.

Sea of sameness - "jaded is the new stoned"

2011-01-08T22:33:00.000-08:00

I drove out to Palm Desert today to see my parents who are in town on vacation from Vancouver (escaping a wet winter). Meant I missed my STAR 123 chapter motorcycle ride, sadly. So I drive along the 215, which then turns into the 60, in the heart of Riverside County, trying to stay awake. You know that whiplash feeling? Head drops, snaps back, drops again? So I cranked the music, and the A/C and kept drinking cold water.

This area is home to multiple new home communities and builder subdivisions, and with the IBS show coming up this week in Florida, and predictions from many of my favorite market researchers that this year will be the uptick we all hoped the middle of 2010 would bring, I paid more attention to the billboards and directional signage than on previous drives along this stretch. Or, maybe it was another technique to stay awake - keep reading.

Wow. And not in a good way. Cover the logo, or the company name (out of respect, names are withheld to protect the innocent) and most every sign out there said something like, "Own from the low $200s" ... or "Own in the desert from the low $200s" ... or "Brokers welcome, new homes from the low $200s". Sure doesn't make me want to take the next exit and see what all the fuss is about. Or give me any reason to think there would be anything particularly compelling or meaningful if I did.

As I thought about this, and the observations made by many other than I that new home sales has become not much more than selling a commodity, I thought about one of many killer lines in Youngme Moon's book, Different that I finished last weekend - "Jaded is the new stoned". Maybe so. But if this is the kind of compelling call to action our customers face when trying to make a decision to buy, they might just all wish they all were.

I'm going to give us all a pass. It's been a tough few years in real estate and perhaps it will take a while for the creativity to rise from the ashes like we hope the economy does. One things for sure, there's lots of white space there for those with the passion and energy to grab it. KC and team?

What are they saying? Or not...

2010-12-31T01:25:00.000-08:00

How many vacant letters of recommendation have you read, or Linkedin endorsements have you received updates about that say nothing? Social media is opening up the floodgates of information about peers, colleagues and employees (notwithstanding my current employer’s social media policy that prohibits such behavior). But judging by the recommendations and referrals I’ve seen lately, it’s not much more than a bigger sea of sameness and genericism.

Now that performance review time is upon us again, I pride myself on taking the time to actually think about the individual whose performance I am charged with reviewing, and to write comments and feedback that could ONLY be for that particular individual. Anything less is a cop out in my opinion and not worth my or their time. Same goes for referrals and recommendations. What is the point of?

Recommender #1

“NAME has tremendous expertise in the sales and marketing of new homes and large-scale master planned communities. NAME’S knowledge of sales and marketing programs is undeniable, and NAME’S reputation within the industry in unparalled.”

Or, for the same individual…

Recommender #2

“NAME’S experience is unsurpassed.”

Seriously?

Undeniable. Unsurpassed. Unparalleled. NAME must be amazing… but I learned nothing new to help inform a decision from these adjective-laden posts. Too bad NAME’S reviewers couldn’t provide one tangible reason why. It seems to me that if you are going to take the time to provide a referral or write a review, your time is best spent going back to basics. What are the specifics about your experience with that particular individual and the tangible examples of their greatness? The proliferation of information channels makes that even more important. If I am reading 12 recommendations about NAME, why not be the one who took the time to actually SAY something?

Maybe it's just a personal pet peeve, but I'm over "Unparalleled, unsurpassed, and undeniable" with no substance behind it. Sigh... we're all marketers at heart I suppose. But even in the world of referrals and recommendations great marketing stands out from the rest of the pack.

Hellllllllllloooooo Alaska Airlines????

2010-12-30T18:52:00.000-08:00

It's been 4 weeks since my trip from Kelowna-Seattle-San Diego on Alaska Airlines. You remember the trip (AS 482, Sunday Dec. 5th), delayed, then pulled back to the gate and delayed again. And despite the pre-holiday lack of patience many customers showed, the flight attendants were awesome, keeping us up to date and current.

This was the crew that handed out a free 1,000 bonus Alaska MVP Miles. Great gesture, but what about any fellow passengers who don't participate in this program? Thinking my preferred airline would want a suggestion, I reached out. Well, unlike their competitor Continental Airlines, I am saddened to report that after two friendly attempts at contacting their "Customer Care" folks via their website, still no reply. Sure, I can write off this past week due to Santa and festivities, but really? I've been an MVP or MVP Gold for 10+ years with Alaska, and do truly love their service, and for the most part their schedules.

My trusted, admired and preferred brand though - is losing some esteem the longer I go with no reply. New Year's Resolution - no answer by this time next week and I am calling them!

Oprah launches "OWN" network with none of her own start-up capital ... really?

2010-12-22T20:08:00.000-08:00

I don't know why we watch Entertainment Tonight anyway - the show format just makes me crazy - running previews within the body of the show to the point that by the time the actual 47 second "story" airs you've seen it all, five times minimum, along with the "stories" being followed for tomorrow night's show, also five times each.

Tonight's show featured a story about Oprah's soon-to-be-launched cable TV network, "OWN" (Oprah Winfrey Network) and the ridiculous assertion by some guy whose name I missed that she's launching it "without any start-up capital of her own". Her media partner Discovery apparently put up $189M for their part in the 50-50 joint venture, in addition to proferring their underwhelming Discovery Health channel for OWN's spot on the dial.

Sounds huge right? What's Oprah bringing to the party? No greenback capital perhaps. Her contributions are her brand name, her 25-year Oprah Winfrey Show library and her website Oprah.com. Sounds like at least $189M worth to me! Think of the impact her endorsement has had on media properties, authors, movies, health, whatever. Like her or not, she's had a massive impact on popular culture for at least two decades.

And there's value in that brand called Oprah. That's what a brand is all about - a valuable, tangible business asset. In her case, she built hers to the point that it can launch a new TV network. Repeat after me: there's value in a brand...

Social media usurps the Christmas letter

2010-12-19T18:16:00.000-08:00

For the past five years, since moving to California, we've written a long and detailed Christmas letter, sharing stories of life in our adopted country, adventures with new friends, complete with pictures of the year's events. Some recipients tell me when our card and letter arrives they brew a pot of tea, or cup of coffee and settle in for a good read, as the stories of our past year unfold. One sitting, one static event, driven by the specific point in time coinciding with the arrival of a hard copy letter. This year we didn't write a letter, and while I can come up with any number of excuses as to why (a serious illness in the family, a busy stressful year at work, the exciting arrival of a new grand baby, the loss of our dear cat Jack, the usual heavy travel schedule, and many other countless complications of daily life) I think there may actually be "game changing" reason why.

Social media has usurped the traditional Christmas letter!

Our year has unfolded and been memorialized in Facebook posts, blog entries, and the occasional Tweet ... Yes, social media has usurped our Christmas letter this year. So, just like so many other things in life that are more immediate, like the 24/7 news cycle, our "Christmas" letter unfolded in real time throughout the year in posts, status updates, tagged photos, and tweets, consumed as and when you wanted it, over a coffee, as you sat in traffic, got your nails done, or waited at the doctor's office. On your time, however and whenever you wanted it. Just like everything else in the world today - there when you want it, and not when you don't.

Far from being a traditionalist, I firmly believe things are never going to be the way they were before so many societal shifts and the world-changing events of the past couple of years. And I'm thankful for that!

But there is a certain art of the letter that gets lost in all this evolution and forward-looking change. Take my 75-year old mother, who for countless years made herself a cup of coffee and sat down to write her sister a letter every Sunday. Aunty Vi passed away last week, and I'm sure at some point today there was a space in my mom's day where she wondered what to do with herself. Perhaps that explains why I received three emails from her! She's hit the real time just like the rest of us.

Pilot sends me free pens, for my free product opportunity advice.

2010-12-16T18:44:00.000-08:00

After my rant about the hard to open packaging of the Pilot pen I bought two weeks ago tomorrow in the Seattle airport, Pilot responded by email (see previous post) and promised to send me some samples for taking the time to write. Well, they made good on their promise and sent not one, but three standard-sized pens, one mini pen and three packages of ink refills. Totally not necessary and unexpected.

What was more meaningful was their commitment to pass the idea along to their marketing team for consideration in new product development. I think they meant it.

It's great to see companies like Pilot (and Continental Airlines, see yesterday's post) who get involved in a two-way dialogue with their customers. I'm reflecting back to 2007 when TIME Magazine chose "YOU" as the person of the year, and Ad Age chose "THE CUSTOMER" as the agency of the year, that same year. It's easy to forget that just a few short years ago companies and brands as big as these typically didn't take the time to respond to most comments. The world has changed, customers really are in control and hats off to those who get that.

I know I will stay on the hunt for it, and will continue to share news and reviews of it here. So go forth and listen to and talk with your customers, the good and the mad!

Continental Airlines Responds ... and I am inclined to believe their promise.

2010-12-14T21:55:00.001-08:00

Dear Ms. Slavik-Tsuyuki:

Thank you for including Continental Airlines in your travel plans. We appreciate the time you took to let us know about your experience. It is disappointing to learn of the negative impression we created.

The behavior you described is not reflective of our commitment to providing our customers the highest level of service. I apologize for the negative impression this situation created. We intend to provide a high-quality experience, tailored to meet the individual needs of our passengers.

We work hard to correct both issues brought to our attention. Although we cannot explain the inappropriate behavior, we can work to correct it. This matter will be addressed internally and considered confidential. You will not receive further information; however, your concerns will be taken very seriously, and I am confident necessary corrective action will be taken.

We hope you will not judge us based solely on this experience.

Regards,

Ms. T. McGlothen
Customer Care Manager

TRACKING NUMBER: A00006426648-00042060327

-----Original Message-----

From: teri@tst-ink.com
Sent: 10 Dec 10 10:37:29
To:
Cc:
Subject: Future Travel

Submitted: 12/9/2010 10:47:08 PM

OnePass Number: DC826164

Subject: Future Travel
Reply: Not applicable

Message: I fly Continental multiple times a year, sometimes multiple times per month. On yesterday's flight the behavior of your flight attendants was horrifying. It's an unfortunate trend I have seen more of, audibly putting down and complaining about other passengers. It's sad and unnecessary and left those around me yesterday feeling like under-appreciated cattle.

Read more here, in my blog post: http://tstinkthink.blogspot.com/2010/12/flight-attendants-please-keep-your.html

I send this to you only to show you the way it unfolded, and because I have to believe an airline as great as this would want to know how people feel while consuming your service.

Flight Number: 739

Flight Date: 12/8/2010

Approximate Departure Time: 9:00 a.m.

Origin: Houston
Destination: San Diego

Airport: None
Date: None

Flight attendants, please keep your voices down!

2010-12-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

2010 hasn’t been as big a year of travel for me as 2009 and I am a little out of practice. This trip I left my iPhone and computer chargers at home. So I conserved phone battery power, and thankfully was travelling with another Mac user, enabling me to borrow juice from her charger.

In the past four days I have been on three different airlines, in two countries, one trip for pleasure and this one for business. And I am noticing something I don’t think I did last year. Or perhaps I was just de-sensitized to it and now it’s all coming back to me. Flight attendants, it seems, make no attempt to hide their impatience and disgust with the quirks and foibles of their passengers. I noticed glimmers of it last weekend on another flight.

This particular crew, Continental 739 (9:25am departure Dec. 8^th, Houston – San Diego) is particularly bad.

A woman with two small children, looking frazzled as her children dragged and bumped their kid-sized carry-ons down the aisle asked if it was possible to change seats to sit together. I’d bet the two girls were 4 and 6-years old, maybe. Now admittedly I didn’t hear the whole conversation or witness first-hand how possibly demanding or unreasonable this passenger may have been. But I did get to witness the flight attendants after the fact, in the galley at the front of the cabin bitching and moaning about this woman. I mean bitching and moaning. Followed up by the same antics about the final passenger who boarded the plane when there was no remaining overhead space and he didn’t want to check his bag – for fear of losing it.

How bad could it have been to deal with these two customers, and who really cares? I didn’t want to hear about it, or be left with the feeling … “what do they say and think about the rest of us”? And then I wanted to smile at them and say, “I hope you are having a great day” or, “geez you should be glad to have a job, though you clearly hate it” or the final thought, “as a result of the woman and her children in seats whatever A, D, and F you can actually feed your family”.

I mean seriously. I know the airline business has been pummeled of late. As passengers dealing with reduced schedules, crammed planes, vanishing upgrades and checked baggage fees, we are all living the life. So, from a passenger’s perspective, I say if you hate it so much, get a new job. Have a little courtesy and spare us your whining about those of us who pay your salary. Here’s the deal, I’ll return my seatback to its full upright position, ensure my tray table is locked and stowed, and my seatbelt fastened, provided flight attendants … you please keep your voices down.

Response to a whacky product idea - from the Pilot pen company

2010-12-07T19:03:00.000-08:00

Wow - check out this response from Pilot, after receiving an email from me to their customer care section of their company website, recounting my experience in the Seattle airport and resulting new product idea. I'm not sure whether to feel "blown off" or whether to watch the airport nearest me for the next big product innovation from my favorite pen company?

They do get marks though for the speed of the response, for spelling my name correctly, and for identifying the issue that was the subject of my comment (product packaging). Not bad, and a good example of a company engaged with customers.

They could have hit it out of the park for me if they had responded more authentically, like, "Hey, great idea we'll see if it makes sense". Or, "Crazy idea, we don't have enough 'airport"\' volume to support that notion, but thanks for the thought" instead of phrases like, "It brings us great pleasure..." and "for your continued writing pleasure".

Oh well, keep your eyes and ears to the ground to see what their marketing team does with it!

Dear Ms. Slavik-Tsuyuki,
Thank you for reaching out to us about our G2 Pro Gel Ink Pen. It brings us great pleasure knowing that you enjoy using our products. We always appreciate hearing from our satisfied customers and thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding your experience with the product packaging. Please be assured that your comments have been forwarded to our Marketing and Quality departments.

We would be pleased to send you a complimentary sample for your continued writing pleasure. This will be sent to the address you have provided.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. If there is anything else we can assist you with please feel free to contact me directly.

Sincerely,
Holly Houser
Consumer Advisor

Service Recovery - the Alaska Airlines way

2010-12-05T18:02:00.000-08:00

Flight 482, set to depart Seattle, enroute for San Diego at 3:40pm. All is going well, I even got the last upgrade and am seated comfortably in 1D when (being the first customer in the plane and closest to the flight attendants) I hear rumblings about the "weather radar" and needing to call a mechanic for a part. I pull open my iPad and check FlgihtTracker and it tells me our estimated departure time is now 5:05pm. I know this before the crew it seems.

Turns out not to be that bad, but we endure a 35 minute flight delay as the part is installed and tested. During this time, some of the best flight attendants I've had do their best to apologize and calm these Sunday afternoon travelers. Kim, Amy and Stephanie deserve special mention (I will be sure and include that on my comment card after this flight).

All good, the part tests out, check. Safety demo complete, check. AS482 heads out on the runway at Sea-Tac and I'm calculating the delay in my head to determine if I need to text Pam and ask her to DVR tonight's Dexter episode when we just kind of stop. We've backed up from the gate, flight attendants are seated and we just kind of stop.

And we head back to the gate, this time it seems the in-flight A/C is malfunctioning. Same routine, Kim does her best to make the announcement and avoid passenger mutiny, and we wait. This fix is faster than the first and the mechanic is on and off the plane in less than 10 minutes. Part installed, check. Tested, check. And we enjoy the safety demo for the second time on this flight - because the door was opened. FAA regulation apparently.

Our patience is openly and authentically appreciated (I actually feel this) as expressed in the announcement and as we begin to push back from the gate the flight attendants hand out a card attached to a post card with the header "Our Apology". It entitles everyone inconvenienced on the flight today to 1,000 bonus miles in our Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account. Great! As a member for many years, that will be 1/20th of the way to MVP status next year for me. A gesture very much appreciated for what in the scheme of things is a minor delay.

Then I get to thinking, and listening to those around me. What if I don't collect miles on this airline or have a Mileage Plan account? What if this is the only time I ever fly Alaska? Sure the card gives you an option to sign up, but that makes the conciliatory offer a little less genuine perhaps? There are always cost controls to manage and "breakage" on these kinds of offers, but I wonder if my favorite airline has run the numbers on a "let's make it up to you" offer that gives their customers a choice? Maybe $25 to use on future Alaska Airlines travel? For non-Mileage Plan members that could pay for checked baggage or change fees if plans change, or a cocktail or snack pack. I should, but I don't know the cost per point, but I assume 1,000 points is likely in that range.

Costs aside, I have to believe the benefits of giving their customers a true choice, even if it is for future Alaska travel, would go further than a one-size-fits-all 1,000 points. As we reach our cruising altitude Kim informs us of another benefit on today's flight, free GoGoInflight WIFI, courtesy of Honda. All I had to do was watch an ad for the cool new CR-Z and give them my email address (they did give me the choice right there to opt-out of future offers) and land on a Honda page promoting the car: http://automobiles.honda.com/cr-z/?static=true

I am a loyal Alaska Airlines traveler - they have the best options and the best service up and down the west coast, and I am appreciative of the 1,000 miles. But the lesson here for me today, seen in action, was give customers a choice and the apology is that much more valuable. And the other lesson? GREAT customer service goes a very long way. Kim and her crew have been serving and working with pride and it shows, even on one of the bumpiest rides I've experienced in months.

Dear Pilot, I just discovered a new product opportunity for you!

2010-12-03T10:20:00.000-08:00

I am at Gate C-12 in the Seattle-Tacoma Airport, directly across from the Hudson News store. I had arrived in plenty of time for my connecting flight to Kelowna, BC and was catching up on email. Then I remembered I am actually entering another country, the country of my birth, and it requires that I fill out a Customs Declaration Card.

No biggee - I pick one up from the gate agent to discover I have no pen. Just my trusty mechanical pencil. No dice for filling out an official government form.

Ah ha - Hudson News will have one! And yes indeed, I debate between the plain blue Bics, or the Seattle souvenir types when I spot it - the Pilot G2-Pro, black ink, fine tip just like I like it. And I grab a pack of Rolos for the flight.

Then it hits, I CANNOT get the plastic "impenetrable-by-humans" packaging open. You know the kind I mean, that rips your hands if you even try without scissors. So I ask the gate agent if they have a pair I can borrow. WHAT am I thinking - we are in a secure airport at a boarding gate. No dice x2. I can run to the Guest Services Desk 10 gates away and miss my flight?

So Pilot ... I'm thinking, you probably sell a lot of pens in airports, with Hudson News and others. What a HUGE product opportunity, a package that you can actually open without sharp objects. Airport safe. And I can imagine there are countless other brands too, who could substantially improve their customers' experiences by developing something easy to open, airport safe.

Have no fear, I am now on the plane, seat 12D, with a bandaid on my right thumb.

Fear of the new and unknown

2010-11-25T12:51:00.001-08:00

Wow this is funny, and yet sad at the same time. Back in the day, with the beginnings of rail transportation, came what some historians have called "extraordinary paranoia". Apparently it was thought that trains would blight the crops with their smoke, terrify livestock with their noise, and that people would suffocate if traveling at more than 20 miles an hour! Some saw the railway as a threat to social order, allowing the lower classes to travel too freely, weakening moral standards and dissolving the traditional bonds of community.

Sound familiar to what has been predicted with constant changes in technology, and the explosion of social media? Or how about the fear and paranoia surrounding same-sex marriage ... "weakening moral standards and dissolving the traditional bonds of the family".

Fear of the new and unknown can stop innovation at best. At worst, it can cause a chasm and huge divide between adopters and dissenters. You know what I'm talking about - and have probably heard some of these refrains... "Facebook is for college kids. It won't catch on for business". "Social media opens us up to our customers' being able to post their discontent with our company for all the world to see". "We don't want to create opportunities for customers and prospects to actually interact in case our customers have a beef with us". "Allowing same-sex marriage threatens the family". Really?

Trains run every day, some upwards of 200+ miles/hour, and no one suffocates as a result. Social media has responded to customers' desire to state their truth and their positions (whether we like them or not). The post-industrial world and all its opportunity has caused lasting changes in the world of work, the role of women and the family, long before the idea of same-sex marriage.

So on this Thanksgiving Day I am thankful for all the pioneers who are much smarter than I, and those willing to take great personal and professional risks to expose us to the new. Some of it may not stick. Some of it may not be judged helpful. But change and curiosity is nothing to fear.

Middle Child Syndrome

2010-11-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

These 3 poodle girls are living proof that "middle child syndrome" exists in the canine kingdom as it does in the human. From left to right: Tailor (just 6), Olivia (8) and Isabelle (13!) are quite the family. Izzy now stands at the door to the motorhome on her potty breaks and looks at me like, "well are you going to lift me down?" while Tailor pushes her way through, and Olivia hangs in the background.

And meal times? Well, the 2 younger ones eat first, then Izzy's bowl goes down. Middle child Olivia ALWAYS finishes first, while Izzy decides if it's worth the effort, and Tailor ("One Crunch") takes her time. So Olivia goes back and forth between each, hoping for a reaction or better yet that one of them will walk away. If she could speak I swear she would say, "Can't you just let me finish it??".

Snuggle time at night? Tailor, because she's the smallest and "cute" always seems to have a place on my lap - she just makes it so. Izzy, stretched out on her back on HER couch. And so that leaves Olivia, moving from dog bed to dog bed, wandering past me and pushing her nose up under my arm craving a pet. So interesting to watch the dynamics.

So parents be aware - middle child syndrome is still alive and well, even in the canine world.

SHIFT - brands that you join, not just buy

2010-11-23T10:24:00.000-08:00

Just finished Peter Arnell's book, "SHIFT" and loved it. I had no idea until I finished it and Googled him looking for more that his agency was the one behind the changing of the Tropicana OJ packaging (referred to as a $35M mistake as consumers revolted) but it was still a great book. Great writing style, simple, pithy and compelling.

Throughout the book, and all the examples given, I was reminded about so many creatives who take the notion of "brand" only so far. For some it's about a look/feel or logo. For others it's about "raising awareness" or helping a company become known for what it does. For others it's about sales. So many in this space don't put the thinking energy into taking their brand to the next level and making it something so much more meaningful than just a marketing construct.

Arnell puts it simply - "In consumer branding, we need to not just have customers buy a product but to join a brand. We need to issue an invitation not push for a transaction."

I think he is so right. Every single one of us, including those who make our lives in the vast array of "marketing" pursuits, are customers too. And I bet most of us despise, some even hate, being treated like a transaction and part of an equation on a sales report. So as "Black Friday" looms just a few days away, the most transactional of all shopping days, I'm making it my personal charge to drink in the whole experience and see if I can find any "transactions" that invite me to join, in a sustainable way (beyond the monthly service contract!).

I'm betting there are few, if any. And yet, as a client once told me when we were launching a new destination resort and trying to tell the story, "I'll know it when I see it". For me, it's beyond just seeing, I know great brands when I feel them, and they invite me in to their community. Let's make it our professional charge to do this on every brand we touch. You in?

Harvest Festivals. Community. Simple pleasures.

2010-10-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

Today at the Del Mar Fairgrounds I joined what seemed like thousands of others interested in hand-crafted arts and crafts, artisanal food and baked goods, toys carved out of wood, unique metal jewelry, original music and every other thing like these you can imagine, typically found at the world's best street fairs. I admit, I expected to find a bunch of older ladies, hair done up, looking for quilts, silk flowers, and selling things that had no practical use at all. My mind's stereotype was pleasantly blown.

The vendors were as diverse at the world in which we live - young, old, gay, straight, Americans, immigrants, families and eclectic individuals whom I imagined live in funky outposts in small town Arizona or New Mexico, or coastal California towns no one has ever heard of.

It was packed. And it was cool. There was a happiness and peace in the air. Those of us buying were doing something "good", supporting local artists directly, and those who were selling were clearly proud of their creations, many very in touch with the ebbs and flows of this crazy world we live in, like the silver pendants with motivational sayings designed to make you feel ok about "making it through", or the belt buckle switchblade knife combo that comes with a card quoting the penal code appropriate to a concealed weapon (it is not one ... apparently one inch more and it would be), or the cupcakes made with some famous ingredient used by the native Americans that promote energy and are appropriate for vegans, or every kind of fruit and herb-infused olive oil imaginable.

I have been to many street and craft fairs, and this one was the best. I was struck by the energy, and the fun everyone was having supporting the artisan movement. It didn't feel like a Sunday afternoon for old ladies who drive beat up gold cars too slowly. And it made me reflect again on "community" and what it means.

Two years ago we asked our home shoppers how they spent their free time. Almost 50% said "dining out". Today, that has dropped to just over 10%. Glad I am not in the restaurant business... And in answer to that same question about free time, two years ago just 2% said "spending time visiting friends and neighbors in my community". Today that number has increased more than five times.

Maybe there's a correlation, maybe not, but there's a line in a song somewhere about enjoying what you have, not wanting what you don't. If ever there was a time to just turn it down a notch and enjoy what's right around us, including the creative gifts of others, it's now.

Is it just a cycle - or has it changed forever?

2010-10-19T19:22:00.000-07:00

At the ULI Fall Conference last week there was a lot of talk about things like, "when will it come back?" or "when will it return/recover to what was?".

Understandable questions for so many who spend their time and lives creating communities and building real estate. I think this question though is a moot point. The premise behind it is the real estate business is cyclical, beholden to the ebbs and flows of the economy, the political economy, job creation/retraction. So we are all wondering when these conditions will improve. In my humble opinion, that is the right question. But wondering when it will "come back" and the American consumer will go back to consuming like before is not as relevant as spending our time trying to understand how this American consumer will fulfill the belief in personal attainment, and opportunity, in a world that has forever changed.

The convergence of a number of factors - technological, environmental, demographic, gender roles, and global economics - have all dramatically changed our culture and our society, and forever altered the way we live, relate, consume and express ourselves. I think if we stop looking backwards and look at what is we would mostly all agree with that. AND, what has not changed is the American consumers' belief in opportunity, and their ability to create a future of their own making. The two are not mutually exclusive. I think more can be learned and gained about looking forward to the cues and signs from this new reality than worrying about the loss of old.

It's an exciting and motivating time to be alive!

The Changing Customer ...

2010-09-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

I'm preparing for a panel presentation at ULI (Urban Land Institute) next month. Our topic is basically about the changing consumer, what trends we are all seeing and how our various businesses are responding. With every new thing we are trying, what's working and what's not, and maybe a little bit about why.

The thought that occurs to me is for at least the past 3 years we have been talking, writing, hearing about the "changing customer". Like it's some kind of new permanent state, or new absolute - this "changing" customer. The changing customer is not the same as s/he was 3 years ago, and will not be the same next month. I think we need a new moniker for this illusive person.

The customer as of September 2010, versus the customer of April 2010. In the residential real estate business those are two different people. And what will they be like in December of this year? Fun to think about. There's no magic pill, other than SPEED of thought, and flexibility in approach. And the need to look outside ourselves, really, and deeply at this customer. I know that to be true - we don't have the answers inside the walls of our offices or boardrooms. They are out there in the marketplace to be observed and participated in.

The Web is to Cities What Apple is to Suburbia

2010-05-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

I love the Sunday NY Times, not only for my "me" time with a good cup of coffee and some fine writers who make me think, but also for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. Today's Magazine did not disappoint, and Virginia Heffernan's feature, "The Medium" drew some thoughtful and thought-provoking parallels between the Web and cities, and Apple and suburbia. Given that much of my life right now is devoted to how people live, what they care about in communities, and working with teams to build these communities, AND yes I am an Apple devotee - this was a must read.

Here's the link for those whose attention in piqued:
http://nyti.ms/9jM0Rq

The basic gist is the "open" Web is like urban centers, full of the unexpected, the gritty, the sometimes not clean sides of life, and with the advent of the iPhone and now the iPad, Apple is enabling Web users to avoid the urban decay of the big wide open Web and head to the suburbs. The App store lets users self-select their experience, behind walled gardens of better developed "user experiences" where everything is neat, cute and orderly.

Her overall premise? The Web is being "stratified" with pay walls, subscription access and privacy settings and other ways of controlling the experience. This makes users feel safe. The parallel she draws (though not totally stated overtly) is that suburbia is one of society's physically stratified places. Safe, clean and away from what many consider the decay of inner city urban living. Life is never this black and white for sure, but it's an interesting metaphor.

She says 50 million people are on their way to quitting the open Web entirely (the current number of iPhone and iPad users), and warns: "By choosing machines that come to life only when tricked out with Apps from the App Store, users of Apple's radical mobile devices increasingly commit themselves to a more remote and inevitably antagonistic relationship with the Web."

Now, were creating communities NOT my business I hope I would still see this metaphorical stretch a little fatalistic! The parallel here is of course that people who choose to live in the suburbs are committing themselves to an inevitably antagonistic relationship with urban life, or that their suburban life comes alive only when "tricked" by the creations of suburbia - private amenities, walled access, and god forbid a gate to keep out interlopers! I'm probably carrying the link too far (let's hope!) but what I see in suburbia all over the country is new models of community, new styles of home product, and shifts in demographic and lifestyle characteristics of the people who are moving there. It's no longer the traditional families who live here (where "family" means you must have children) and where mom stays home and everyone lives in a single-family house with the garage out front.

Suburban living today is every kind of family you can imagine, and more new ones being created each day. And it's more and more about every kind of home product too, smaller homes, attached homes, townhomes, walk ups, live/work homes, and homes where multiple generations live together. Just like in cities. All these shifts and many more to come are forever changing the character of suburban living.

So maybe the real take away is that the proliferation and accessibility of Apps from the App Store and the growing stratification of the Web will simply be another additive alternative to our online world. Stratification, doesn't always have to divide - sometimes it just gives people more choice and ways to stay in control of their own reality. City or suburban dweller, open Web user or iPhone browser, I am pretty certain that's a desire we all share.

Anyway, it's a great read - she made me think.

Olivia the poodle and her cat Jack's hug and ear lick love

2010-05-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

Context

2010-04-24T17:26:00.000-07:00

It was Easter Sunday when the latest moderately big earthquake hit Southern California.
And then there were aftershocks for days and days. One on a Monday morning at about 4:15am that was big enough to make a cracking sound in the house and wake me up. Cool. For someone originally from the West Coast of Canada this living on the San Jacinto fault is a new adventure. And now, whenever we're in a building that shakes - maybe a train goes by, or an industrial boiler goes off, or some other thing happens - right away we look at each other and say, "Earthquake?".

Funny. I wonder how long this new context will remain at the front of my brain?

It's the same thing when you buy a new car. For the next few months you see more of the same car on the road than you had noticed before. And when someone does something that puts you out, that's what you remember the next time you see them. No matter what they do differently or better, you have that previous experience stuck in your brain.

So it seems context is a form of memory. That's just it - memory. But remember, it's not the only thing. Not every shake of a building means the earth is rocking and rolling. And that person you formed a singular opinion of, may not be singular at all.

To Reason .. or Not to Reason?

2010-04-13T22:36:00.000-07:00

I am back on my animal bent again.
Reading a great book called "One Good Dog" as we speak, about a guy who was high up in corporate America, with a life that was all that, including a father-in-law with the last name Carrington and a daughter named Sterling. Well, he falls from grace, as is so often the case and ends up on the street (ok, a little cliche). Cutting to the chase, but not spoiling the story, he adopts a pit bull cross from an animal shelter. The metaphor is obvious - a man and a dog both down on their luck get together and figure out what they may have once had may not have been the true panacea. And they can create a life that really matters together anyway.

Chance (the dog) teaches him, and us, a thing or two about relationships, trust, honesty, dignity and dare I say respect. So much of this seems to be missing today as we are all harried and rushing from A to B to C to Z in the space of a single breath.

It's a good book - worth picking up.

It also spawned a conversation tonight about whether or not dogs have the capacity to reason. I am firmly on the side of yes they do. My youngest of 3 Standard Poodles, Tailor, after only ONE incidence of being invited outside to throw and retrieve a toy while I BBQd has decided now that when I go to the deck door with tongs in hand it is her cue to do what she was bred to do - retrieve!

Ok, so that's memory right? That's reason my friends. Cause and effect. She knows if I go to the door there's a good chance there's some fun in it for her. Just like every other smart dog you know who figures out when you pick up their leash it means a walk.

So yes, I believe our canine friends have the full capacity to reason. They also have the beautiful capacity which we seem to lack, of not over-complicating life.

Vancouver hosts the world ... again

2010-02-09T22:08:00.000-08:00

Only a mere few days from now the 2010 Winter Olympic Games will kick off in Vancouver and Whistler (and surrounding, less well-known areas). Yesterday the torch was passed through my old hometown. Today on Facebook friends who still live there posted about it. Some lamented about the beauty. Others shared euphoria having touched it, and fears they may have dropped it. Sounds like the city is a-buzz! I have my Olympic gear ready and tickets to two hockey games. Now that I live in San Diego it will require a 4-hour plane trip and week's vacation to the old 'hood to experience it.

Totally fine with me. I remember the day, not long ago, when Vanoc won the bid for these games, and 2010 seemed waaaaaaaay far away.

Now, a somewhat ex-pat who by chance has had a cadre of Canadian visitors down the last 3 weekends is watching the moment unfold from two different perspectives. Canuck friends tell me anything "Canadiana" is flying off the shelves. Like the Cowichan sweaters we wore 20 years ago, and probably the famous striped Hudson's Bay blankets too. Anything First Nations. Anything red and white. Probably the odd Mountie or two as well. This just makes me think (yet again) how crazy it is that stereotypes take so long to change. There's so much more to my old country than that (like, no one actually really wears those Cowichan sweaters anymore) - but when the world is watching it seems to get reduced to the traditional signs and symbols.

Oh well, I hope the old town puts on a great show (with or without snow for the snowboarders) and maybe, just maybe, there will be some meanings and memories visitors from around the world take with them back to their hometowns. And I'm not talking steroid use Ben Johnson!

Go Canada. Go world. Go Vancouver!

Eyes wide open

2010-01-17T20:45:00.001-08:00

This is 2010. A new decade. A new vibe it seems everywhere, including within me.
Eyes wide open to what matters. What really matters. Not created dramas or stress for no reason.
The world is really a small place. I feel that now more than I have in years, and take comfort from that.
Much around us is noise. I own up to having been trapped in the whirl myself for far too long.

May the events of the end of 2009 that made me adopt "eyes wide open" as my mantra help me keep the vibe where it matters, where it's real, and out of the noise.

Eyes wide open.

On the spectrum of positive-negative

2009-12-08T21:34:00.000-08:00

I was talking with a friend at work today who is going through a tough time. Heart-wrenching stuff that makes you remember you are alive because the pain is so bad. Earlier this morning I read something in a book I skim every now and then about "negativity". The author's premise was that it is only humans who actually feel and sometimes dwell on the negative. Other living beings just "are". He asserts that negativity is totally unnatural, and no other life form knows it. It's a psychic pollutant. Ever see an unhappy flower? Or a stressed out oak tree? What about a stressed or depressed dog? Maybe in the moment, but I think the author was right - in no other being does it last beyond the immediate situation. It's really just we inferior humans with this developed capacity to dwell on the past, obsess about the future, second guess our decisions, and just generally live anywhere but the present.

This makes me think of my dogs, and their view on the world. One of them has an irritated ear at the moment (Olivia). I needed to treat it with some stuff to help it heal. She's smart enough to know that when I picked up the squeeze bottle containing the medicine and then a paper towel, and called her to come to me, it couldn't be good. But, she came anyway. Sure, a little more slowly, and with her tail at half mast. Once the treatment was complete, she shook her head, looked up at me, and twirled in her characteristic circles that mean some version of "I love you and am really glad I'm yours!".

Two minutes later, in her little world it was all over, and she went back to her happy self, no feeling sorry for herself, or holding a grudge. Just being. Another simple lesson from these four-legged creatures we share the planet with. And another reminder that some of the things that come with being evolved humans may not be so evolved at all. If negativity is unnatural, then I vote for the back to nature approach. Life in this environment and economy is tough enough without piling any more on.

Creative entrepreneurship

2009-11-28T10:25:00.001-08:00

Walking through the RV park yesterday late afternoon I noticed an older couple sitting outside their rig. He was carving wooden figures and his wife was painting what he carved. Sucking on a cold Corona as the knife glides over the soft wood - schlick, shclick, schlick, he shapes the next wooden figure, no doubt playing out their stories in his mind as each one takes shape.

They are working on what looks to be a nativity scene, appropriate now that it's the day after Thanksgiving. Beneath the table where his wife is painting each figure is a large family of wooden animals, sitting proud. And on the chair next to her, just hanging out, is a fat and happy orange tabby cat, who barely raises her head as the dogs and I walk past.

What I loved about this brief snapshot of their life is not only their ease and comfort with each other, but their shared creations. RV parks are great for this. Life on the road brings out the resourcefulness and creativity in people. I've seen more homemade tools, gadgets and gizmos made by RVers than you find at most street fairs. And I've learned to grab them when I see them, because like the people who make them, they are always one of a kind.

Do you ever wonder ... what will be the point?

2009-11-27T13:52:00.000-08:00

The Point
What will be when I am gone
That wasn't before I was?
What am I that never was
Before I walked this land?
A feeling, a sense, a smell my own
A symbol to be discovered?
What will be the point to this life I lead
When I am dead and gone?

Thanksgiving Day - the best day of the year in America

2009-11-26T08:11:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Day 2009, 7:15am. I'm walking the dogs to the dog run in the RV park and already the festivities have begun. An older couple, in their 70s maybe, walked out from the pool and restroom building just behind the dog run. She has a large measuring bowl in her hand, and what looks to be a small bag of flour. My guess is the makings of her Thanksgiving gravy.

"Good morning," she says, as Isabelle and I pass by on our way to the run, "and Happy Thanksgiving," she follows up with a broad smile, as her husband tips his hat to me. Thanksgiving Day in America is the best day of the year. Less pressure than Christmas and all about family and friends.

The first year were were living here over Thanksgiving we were surprised by how many of our American friends called us throughout the day to wish us Happy Thanksgiving. By year two we had caught on to the tradition, and had our call list all figured out. This is a day full of tradition, and one that truly brings out the best spirit in everyone.

Families do what they can to travel to get together, much more than we do in Canada. And families expand on this day as well, to include neighbors, "orphan" friends and anyone who needs a place to feel loved and cared for. It is something special.

Today in Emerald Desert RV Resort groups of RVers will get together to share tradition and celebrate. They will pull their chairs together in a circle, and others from surrounding sites will pull theirs over. The hosts will likely provide the turkey - I saw a couple deep fryers ready for action outside some big rigs this morning. And the guests will bring yams, salads, vegetable dishes and of course pumpkin pie. There will be wine and laughter and stories.

It's now 7:45am, and Pam is relaxing on the couch, croqueting a scarf for Sarah for Christmas. The dogs have settled in for the morning, on the other couch, the brown donut dog bed, and Olivia, right by my feet. The cats are in their beds on the wide dash, cleaning themselves and watching bugs fly by. I'm enjoying a cup of Thanksgiving Blend coffee.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade starts at 9:00am, from NYC. Then there will be football games all day long. This year we're told the networks are breaking with tradition and airing a third game in the afternoon. Usually there are only two.

Later this morning we will take a walk through the park and watch people setting up their dinners. There are decorations out at some rigs, and extra chairs put out, evidence of more friends and family expected to arrive throughout the day.

It's our community - we are ONE, 2, 3 family of riders.

2009-11-14T22:32:00.000-08:00

Today was our monthly Star Chapter 123 ride (a group of mainly Yamaha cruiser riders who get together and ride the back country of San Diego and Riverside counties). It was the chapter ride where we needed to nominate candidates to stand for 2010 President. We have the best president ever, in Don Davis, and every year when it's time to nominate candidates for the position our Vice President, Steve Thompson (also the best VP ever) sets the stage with a comment that usually goes something like, "Anyone who wants to nominate someone other than Don for president needs to get by me first". If you knew Steve, you would appreciate what a super friendly, easy going guy he is, even with his strength, size, and position as a police detective. He's only kidding about the threat, but he's not really kidding when it comes to his desire to keep Don where he is.

I didn't ride today, recent surgery meant I followed along in the sports car at the back of the line of 30 bikes. This was an incredible view, watching the harmony and flow of 30 bikes with great riders in formation winding around the twisty roads, and up and down the hills as we crossed canyons. Zen for sure, until I got separated at a light from the string of bikes and had no idea where they'd gone. Our fearless tail gunners Tim and Julie pulled over and waited until I caught up, then we headed on. They have a tough job, along with our other tail gunners Yosi and Maryanne, Roy, and Judy, blocking traffic when we pull out of a gas stop so 30 bikes can head out together safely, and when someone has trouble or falls back, it's their job to stay with them and work things out. Today it was their job to keep their eyes out for a straggling 350Z!

Perhaps it was because I wasn't actually riding today, so I was slightly removed from it all, but I observed a quiet calm leadership, and a rhythm to the unwritten and unspoken rules of our road. Don sets the rules and this large group, family really, follows them with ease. He is calm, firm, and clear. No apologies, it just is. Whether it's who holds other positions like Treasurer, Secretary, and his trusted VP, or who will shepherd first time riders. Our group is so large now that 30 bikes are hard to get out of the city and onto the open country roads. As Don explained his new thinking of splitting us into 2 groups for the first leg of the ride, no one flinched. He made it clear that in Star 123 there are no cliques - we are ONE, 2, 3 - ONE group, ONE family.

And we are.
There could have been jockeying for position, or sideways glances. Not in 123. It's just the way it is going to be, stated calmly and clearly. We have a group as diverse as the human race itself I am sure - police, teachers, fire fighters, a rocket scientist, nurses, business owners, engineers, legal aid workers, custom bike accessory sales managers, military (enlisted and retired) from all branches, including a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Marines, but when it comes to leadership everyone is clear about the rules of our road. No one pulls rank. No one throws 'tude or plays politics.

Maybe it's the throaty purr of the engines on the bikes we ride, or maybe it's just that everyone is thankful for each other's friendship and community. Whatever it is, we all know at the start of the day, or after a stop on the way, when Don picks up his helmet and walks toward his bike, not a word spoken, it's time to ride. Tail gunners hold firm in their position, and we pull out in formation and head on down the road.

The beauty and fear of enthusiasm

2009-11-12T20:22:00.001-08:00

Have you noticed there are people in life who just seem to be born enthusiastic? Their energy and passion is on the surface in everything they do. Being in their space is invigorating. They smile a lot, they laugh, and they don't take themselves too seriously, usually. Pure beautiful enthusiasm can seem like a lens they look through to see the world. If they let it be pure.

Enthusiasm never opposes. It is not confrontational. It's activity doesn't create winners and losers. It's based on inclusion not exclusion of others. That's the beauty!

But there is a fear that I've experienced sometimes making itself visible and destructively powerful in the face of enthusiasm. For some maybe it's the fear of being too slow. Or of looking stupid, or of not understanding the source of the enthusiasm. Or the fear of being swept up then left behind in it. Fear is ego, it takes and makes everything personally, which means emotion arises, defensiveness, wanting.

Egoic wanting creates opposition in direct proportion to the intensity of its wanting. Whatever harmed us, whatever we miss, or lack. For some of us its bigger than others. And so is the opposition.

The ego's wanting tries to take from something or someone. Enthusiasm gives of its abundance. Enthusiasm never opposes.

Am I sounding cryptic? Preachy? Metaphysical? Yes.

What I am is really thankful for is the enthusiasm in me. I share this simply to honor that and fill the well back up. And to remind myself to stay alert and aware to the many human foibles we all carry, to have patience, empathy and when things get cloudy ... take out the cleaning cloth and wipe off the lens!

Design is being democtraized

2009-11-10T16:47:00.000-08:00

I read a quote from star designer Karim Rasid that went like this: "Design is being democratized. Our entire physical landscape has improved and that makes people more critical as an audience." If that is true, and I believe it is, then how does a car like this one - the Nissan Cube - make it off the production line?

Seriously?

An asymmetrical spin on the "toaster" that is Toyota's Scion, it's as crazy as the juxtaposition of the Eiffel tower with a temple in Kyoto don't you think?

Keep to yourself, or break your "flow"?

2009-11-09T15:22:00.000-08:00

Some of you responded to my previous post that you were better able to engage with strangers when in a positive mood. Someone else said they didn't think they were that good at it, and someone said they couldn't do it if they didn't have time. I think that's it - we are perennially out of time, or at least we have convinced ourselves that our time is better spent taking care of business or doing something else.

Again Beth, thank you for the question and the fodder for further discussion:
“Where and when did it become so important to keep to one’s self? When did all strangers become bad?”

When life got busier and more complex for most of us, and we are unaccustomed to the stresses it creates. The promise of technology freeing us and creating more leisure time has not happened. People are impatient, stressed out, forever multi-tasking and left with little time to enjoy others around them. It’s all true, and it’s reality today, but people, turn it off! Flip the switch and give yourself a break and some space to connect with the person beside you.

Today in the grocery store I watched a young mother with her two boys, one was probably three, and his younger brother was maybe just two and having a melt down at the yogurt fridge. As he was melting down she was saying, “Time out. You are having a time out,” and she was sending a text message on her iPhone at the same time, really only 1/3 paying attention to her hysterical son. I arrived too late to see the precipitating incident but I did see him slapping her iPhone and yelling “No Mommy.” Who knows if he was mad because she was ignoring him or some other reason.

Then I got to the check-out stand and the man behind me was having a conversation on his cell phone, ignoring the person behind him who was straining to reach past him to grab the latest issue of Time magazine. Ironic I thought.

There is no down time.
We are on the go constantly. We “short cut” with friends we know well when telling stories, and don’t have the patience for those who can’t keep up. I do it, and I see it everywhere.
If I’m in line at the store on a stop on the way home I don’t want to be “interrupted” by having to converse with the person behind me. I just want to grab my bag of cat litter and head home. God help the slow driver in the parking lot making the 3-point turn to get into a spot if they are behind me when I’m ready to leave!

Strangers have become “bad” perhaps because they get in the way of our flow. And we’ve let our flow become paramount – arrogant almost, and anything that interrupts it is a nuisance to be avoided. I even see it in the coffee room at work and that makes me very sad.

We can learn a lot by interrupting our own flow and getting into someone else’s. I made up a customer service game a couple years back that I named “Walk in their shoes”. I found pictures of tons of different types of shoes, cut them out and laminated them into cards, then challenged members of our front line teams to grab a card blindly and create a story about the person whose shoes they were, then get into character and “live” that story. The other members of the team had to stay open, flexible and accepting, ready to deal with whatever the story was the person “wearing the shoes” brought in that day. It was amazing how hard it was to get outside our own preconceived space, and in this case a “script” to really listen, and engage with another person’s story.

Take a moment, slow down, and connect with each other. I’m thankful for the things I discover when I do.

Stranger connections - the lost art of being kind for kind's sake alone

2009-11-08T12:07:00.001-08:00

My friend Beth posted something on her Facebook page yesterday that went something like, " Why are strangers so surprised when you do something nice?". Great question, but sad. I've started a little experiment of late, I make a point of starting a REAL conversation with people I don't know just because. Not the "how are you?" lame question when you don't really care about the answer. One of my faves is, "How's your day going?". It's revealing to check out the way people respond. Or sometimes, "How's your life?".

I do it when I call restaurants to make reservations, or when I get my coffee at Starbucks. The majority of people have no idea how to answer, and some actually freak a little bit out. But on occasion there will be some who love it, and really want to talk, and engage. From those people I have learned a lot of new things that I would not have otherwise. The sad truth of it is we have lost the art of conversing with people we don't know. I mean real conversing, not the basics that are required to fill an order, reserve a table, or drop off a car for service. Conversation about the world at large, not related to the task at hand.

As the world gets larger, it actually gets smaller if we don't reach out and push our comfort zone, or spend a little extra time connecting with the person next to us. We are losing the opportunity to be exposed to different points of view, or new ways of thinking about life. I do it in line-ups too, and that is the best! The person behind me who I strike up a convo with can't get away. They either love it and we pass the time in ways neither of expected, or they hate it and I am the crazy woman who started talking to them about nothing. Fun!

When I thought about Beth's post yesterday, it took me back to an experience I had earlier this year at a CVS pharmacy, and the collateral damage to people's self esteem this kind of disconnected world we live in can cause. I can't re-create what happened better than just quoting directly from my journal, so here goes:

"Jan. 5, 2009

Tonight at CVS we picked up Pam's Nexium prescription and bought some Christmas ornaments for next year. I saw a security guard that made me sad. She was a white-haired, short, round, overweight woman wearing her jacket with its "American Private Security" with pride. She had on a camo hat, the kind the with fuzzy flaps that come down over the ears. She stood in line in front of us, a one dollar bill in hand to buy a snack pack of fried pork chips.

As she approached the til she spotted a penny on the floor, which she clamped her big boot on and dragged it up to the counter with her. Then she spotted another one, and bent down to pick them both up before heading back outside into the cold night to lean against a lamp post in the parking lot and eat her fried pork chip dinner.

We passed her as we drove away. She dipped her head in a nod to me, then looked away quickly - almost as if she was shielding herself from the painful possibility that I wouldn't acknowledge her back."

How sad. I think it will only continue down this path of disconnectedness, but man oh man it's fun to try and stop the slide.

Your Moral Compass - helping to see the other perspective

2009-10-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

I love UTNE Reader. Some will say its pompous and academic. Or that it has a decidedly Liberal view (true). Either way, every month there is a gem in the writings within that makes me think. The Sept/Oct 2009 issue's cover story proclaims the end of attack politics (will never happen), and the story behind it was awesome, only because it is the clearest example of foundational impulses we all have that make up our views on the world - our morals and values if you will.

Jonathan Haidt, a University of Virginia scholar makes the case that liberals and conservatives inhabit different moral universes, though there is some overlap in belief systems, there are huge differences in emphasis. To make his point, he developed a framework that codifies humankind's morality.

Which way you land on these five moral impulses gives a good indication of where you will fall on the liberal-conservative spectrum.

HARM/CARE: It is wrong to hurt people; it is good to relieve suffering.
FAIRNESS/RECIPROCITY: Justice and fairness are good; people have certain rights that need to be upheld in social interactions.
IN-GROUP LOYALTY: People should be true to their group and be wary of threats from the outside. Allegiance, loyalty and patriotism are virtues; betrayal is bad.
AUTHORITY/RESPECT: People should respect social hierarchy; social order is necessary for human life.
PURITY/SANCTITY: The body and certain aspects of life are sacred. Cleanliness and health, as well as their derivatives of chastity and piety are all good. Pollution, contamination and the associated character traits of lust and greed are all bad.

So when the Pope rails against materialism, he's speaking up for the traditional purity/sanctity view. Of all five moral impulses, this one causes the most friction it seems, between cosmopolitan liberals and traditional conservatives. It seems to me to be the root of the gay marriage battle, and before that the abortion rights fight. I can see if someone is hard wired to believe that living a higher more noble life, beyond the more individually focused life of the 21st century, then this compass could tell you the values shifts we see taking place today are wrong. They're not wrong. They're simply evolving with the changing times.

As a Canadian living in the US I can see some differences in how the Canadian social system is based on universally caring for all, versus the more "everyman for himself" values I see here. That is at the root of the differences in our health care systems. No judgment intended here, just observation. "Socialist" gets thrown around a lot in the media right now about the notion of a publicly-funded health care system in the US. To me that's just taking care of each other. Just a different view of true north on the moral compass. Taking the time to understand what's behind how we roll up into our views of the world makes the rhetoric of the polarizing arguments even more pathetic!

Take the test and see where you land, at: www.yourmorals.org

Turkey day

2009-10-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends and family. Today is Thanksgiving Sunday, and tomorrow is a stat holiday in Canada.

Why is the day we celebrate Thanksgiving different in Canada and the US? Did the pilgrims hit land above the 49th parallel then head back out to sea only to hit land again south of the 49th six weeks later? It has never made sense to me.

Anybody out there know why this is?

But I can tell you here in the US of A turkey day signals "the holidays" which amounts to a six week period between turkey day and New Year's Day. The vibration in everyone slows down. And already now (I noticed it last weekend actually) there are Christmas ornaments for sale in the Hallmark store. When I asked the clerk about it she told me they start putting stuff out for Santa's arrival in July. No wonder by the time the end of December arrives I am over it all!

So, anyone know the significance of why Canada and the US eat their celebratory turkey in thanks 6 weeks apart?

Reclaiming pieces of you

2009-09-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

Ever notice how there are times in every day where someone or some situation from your past creeps forward from the depths of your memory, giving you a gift, or a lesson from that previous moment in time? We are the sum of the parts of our previous experiences and people whose paths have crossed ours and left more than an impression. They have left pieces of them, in each of us.

Some call it deja vu.

I think it's more about the grand connections we all have. I am made up of pieces of those who have left their impressions on me. Good and bad.

Some call it genetics. Like the time I was a 9 year old (I think, not exactly sure of my age) and I was walking down the dusty street in front of my grandmother's house in the small town where my father was raised. An older man walking along the same street approached me and said, "You are Milan Slavik's daughter aren't you? You look just like him. You walk just like him". My dad died when I was a small child so that was a moving moment in my life, one of many similar ones I have had since. That man was referring to the physical pieces of me that came from my father. They are very real.

But there are those other pieces of each of us that have come from others whose lives we have shared. Think about it. Those formative years, or those middle aged crisis years when it feels like you are re-defining who you are. Let's face it, we are social beings and we constantly take from and give to each other.

I just love that. I will be a better person because there are pieces of me from so many incredible sources.

What are your interests? Your gifts? Your loves? Your pet peeves? All developed over time as you relate to the world and the people who share it with you. That's what I am talking about - reclaiming those precious pieces of you.

Warmer, fuzzier, friendlier logos a sign of the times?

2009-08-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

The image below is the new Walmart logo, in use for the better part of 2009. It's a shift from the previous version in a few dramatic ways. The old one was darker blue, the letters were in all caps (shouting) and there was a star icon separating the Wal from the Mart, like the asterisk does here: Wal*Mart. So what right?

The new logo is softer, lighter, fuzzier and friendlier. Some would say a needed change and a sign of the times. The addition of the tagline, "Save money. Live better" certainly is a sign of the times, just like the PC commercials running, in an attempt (as yet unsuccessful) to steal market share from Apple by showing how a PC can be cool AND cost under $1,000. Bill Marsh wrote a bit about this in his Ideas & Trends column earlier this summer in the New York Times.

Another example he gave is the change in the Kraft Foods logo. I grew up with the Kraft logo of old, dark blue all cap letters, in that thick red outline box with beveled edges around it. It graced the boxes of KD I ate in first year university when food budgets were tight. What a change Kraft has gone to in their new logo, below. Light, airy, open, colorful, friendly. Even the tagline is an opportunity to make the most of the day - "make today delicious".

These astute marketers and the creatives behind the changes are in touch with the times, and in touch with what I believe to be a lasting change in our culture today. One more humanistic, more open, more accessible. We've all heard the adage, "customers are more in control than ever before" and it is true. What these changes in corporate identity tell me is these companies are realizing that control isn't just about media usage and having the ability to Tivo out commercials, or select news feeds to be sent directly to in boxes.

Perhaps this added customer control is also about wanting to not accept all the negative, and to just find a few little ways to feel better. No emblems of distant, cold, standoff-ish behemoths. Give me non-threatening, reassuring, even playful logos. Faces of friends. Those of you on the more traditional side of the spectrum here, please don't misread this. I am not saying we are becoming a bunch of soft, unaccountable, come-as-you-like-do-as-you-pleasers.

I am saying that life can be a whole lot more fun, and I believe ultimately more productive and sustainable long-term if you come at it in a more open, inclusive, inviting way. That's what I read in these logos and the thinking behind the change.

Speak true. Live free.

2009-08-20T22:33:00.000-07:00

I have violated the cardinal rule of blogging - by not posting anything for more than a month. Forgive me, anyone out there who is waiting to see what comes next (all 10 of you and anyone you pass this to). The truth is I have scrawled notes on all shapes and forms of bits of paper, backs of boarding passes, in the margins of my journal and from news bites I read or watch. I have just not had the brain time to pull anything coherent or interesting enough to use this space.

It has been a busy 6 weeks or so, summer friends and family visiting Southern Cal, and a higher vibration at work as we prepare for 2010 business planning, all the while still hoping to live that long.

One thing I learned years ago, first by seeing what NOT to do in my first real big business job, and then by seeing what TO do by learning from an amazing mentor, is that as a leader in any environment your behavior and your energy can really set the stage for how everyone on a team relates, performs and feels.

If you are hierarchical, closed and threatened by another's opinion you will close down, or shut them out. Not only does this wreak havoc on morale, it also eclipses any opportunity for cross-discipline sharing, building and learning - if everything is kept in linear order, in check and in silos. I had a superior (not a direct boss) who led like that and people feared her, disliked her and operated on the premise of only doing the bare essentials. She was miserable, it showed on her face and in her walk. It showed in the way she chain smoked (remember it was 15+ years ago now, so that was a more common event). But she went through her day thinking she was the boss and she had the power, and somehow she thought that meant she could control people and tell them what to do or not. She was the kind of leader who would ask you your opinion, then if you disagreed with her, you were punished or excluded from further discussion. I can write this story now, all these years later as the statute of limitations must for sure be in effect.

Then in another large corporation I experienced the opposite. I worked with an inspiring, inspired leader. He was confident enough in himself that he wanted new ideas to come from anywhere, and it really didn't matter. He worked hard, laughed a lot, always said thank you for a job well done, had a great sense of humor, walked super fast, was always the first one in the office at 7am each day and clearly loved his work and his life. It showed in the respect he gave everyone around him. He loved nothing more than when the team was successful, and that success was defined by innovating a new product or strategy to steal market share from our biggest competitor across the valley, or being first to market with a new idea. More times than not, he stood back and basked in the success and gave the credit to the person who came up with an idea, or built on one to get to the next level. The team succeeded, he succeeded, and none of us ever really cared who got credit. There was no "inner circle" or excluded ones - there was just the work and that's what we focused on. He pushed me to the edge a time or two with his high expectations. When I thought my marketing plan was the most complete ever written, he challenged me to go deeper - not by telling me or inferring I was stupid or doing it wrong, but by telling me I could dig deeper still and learn a lot more. He gave me the personal challenge, and put his faith and confidence in what I could do. And he wasn't threatened or insecure about whatever the results might be. He was right, and I worked the many extra hours and made tons of phone calls to decipher our competitors' strategies.

So why the blather? Because we are in the midst of a tough time right now economically and it is these times that test us all. What kind of leader will you be? I work hard to be the second, and to give to the team members I work with the same gifts David Barry gave to me. I know I am not nearly as focused, grounded or intelligent as he. But when I am pushed off my center these days I just remember the things he taught me. Focus on the work. Support each other. Stay open. Share the credit. Be nice, it's a lot more fun. Have a sense of humor. Appreciate people's gifts and their faults and work with them both. And to paraphrase one of my favorite performers - Speak true. Live free.

E-mail blunder causes erosion of human decency

2009-07-07T18:56:00.001-07:00

I was sitting in my hotel room in Houston this afternoon innocently working away, preparing for a conference call when I received my first UNSUBSCRIBE!!!!!!! message about 3:07 p.m. from someone on a list who wanted off. I ignored it as spam and kept working. Then another arrived, and another and another, until I counted upwards of 50 messages from people involved in a thread, trying to "unsubscribe" from the original email sent out a few hours earlier.

The problem was, the small business who had sent out the original message had inadvertently included (in the CC field for all on the original message to see) the name of their distribution list which therefore went out with their original offer message. So as people tried to unsubscribe by hitting "Reply All" to the message, their message went back to the originator AND all the folks on the dist list in the CC field. And you can imagine the comments as we all then began getting these messages in addition to the first one.

It just got nasty.
Here's an example. I have hidden the name of the person who wrote this, because I can't believe they would be proud of this statement: "You dumbasses. If you're going to spam a bunch of people be smart enough to do a BCC so that assholes don't reply to all of your clients. Now all of your clients have to read my vulgar email. Anyways, take me off this shit hole list as well."

And that is so incredibly sad. First problem was no one actually took the time to READ the unsubscribe instructions, and then when they starting getting re-sent around by people in the e-mail loop those people also saw fit to Reply to All again and kept making the situation worse.

Flames were thrown. Egos were flexed. People threw insults at others they have never and will never meet, and it degenerated into some of the worst examples of nameless faceless online communication I have seen in a long while. Truly, what gives the medium a bad name.

So I calmy decided to assume that it was a mistake, and sent an email to an address I could easily discern was the originator (sales@urbanlighting.net) that went like this:

Hi there;

I am sure someone over there has their tail between their legs after the fiasco of today, since it appears you likely built a building industry list (maybe from PCBC?) and have sent an eblast and CC’d your specific distribution list (friendsofurbanlighting) who are now all sending emails back to get off the list.

Here’s an idea that would make you a great corporate citizen and give you a chance to regain your reputation and apologize for the mishap – send another email to your ENTIRE list, telling them you have UNSUBSCRIBED them all, and that they will NOT need to reply to UNSUBSCRIBE, that you have done that for them.

Then maybe the madness will stop. I have received probably 40+ messages from people on your list in the past 4 hours.

Please really consider this solution – tell them you have taken them off the list, and DON’T cc your distribution list, so if someone decides to reply to you it is only YOU who gets it.
Thank you.

Teri Slavik Tsuyuki
SVP, Chief Marketing Officer

No one but the person I addressed it to had to see it, and I simply took a shot that they would want the advice. Someone wiser than me, when I ran my small business for 10 years, once taught me of the value of just owning up to it when you make a mistake like this in public, and though it is scary at the time (remember the Tylenol scare in the 80s?) it is better in the long run.

Regret. Restitution. Reform.
Not 15 minutes after hitting "send" on my email I had a call on my cell from a guy named Tim at Urban Lighting, who sounded like he was having the worst day of his life. Not only did he PROFUSELY apologize, and explain what happened, but he thanked me for taking the time to give him some advice, and asked me how I thought people on that list would receive it if he sent them an apologetic email. I suggested he might want to get some PR or marketing help in crafting the message, but that if done right, and quickly I hoped it would defuse the situation.

I hope I am right, because the kind of vile and immature comments flying around from folks who received the initial message were unbelievable. The guy made a mistake. Even those who thought they were "helping" left a lot to be desired when it comes to decency, and a little critical thinking to actually solve the problem.

It is an interesting study in the anonymity of online communication, yet again, and it is still unfolding.

For Tim's part, I may not be in the market for lighting in the near future, and yes I was choked by the email onslaught just like everyone else, but the fact he wanted to make reparations, and the tone in his voice when he called made me remember the cardinal rule of life - let's not forget basic human decency. He deserves a little respect and he has mine. So I'm saying a little prayer for a guy running a small business who just tried to embrace the technology and made a little blunder. No one died. No one lost an eye.

And I'm hoping those who saw fit to forget human decency in their responses never get treated the way they treated Tim and his team today.

Bumper sticker recruits Twitter followers in traffic

2009-07-01T16:51:00.000-07:00

If you don't know someone there are still many good reasons why you would follow them on Twitter. I get the obvious reasons, if you are trying to build your business, create a larger network, or start a community based on shared interests.

But just following them because they drive the same route you do everyday and sit in the same traffic seems a bit of a stretch for the online social media "community" don't you think?

That feels like social media loneliness to me, and reminiscent of the "masses of asses" direct marketing approaches of old.

Or maybe it will transform Twitter into another online dating service, allowing drivers to pick people up based on the make, model, year and color of their car?

If you are curious, get your own Tweet My Bumper sticker here. I know I am going to be wathcing for them, if for no other reason than the sociologist wants to see what else forms of it.

http://bit.ly/12NR6h

In memory of Lucas, best dog ever 09/24/97 - 06/23/08

2009-06-23T07:58:00.001-07:00

Dogs can teach you so many things. My sweet precious boy Lucas, when diagnosed with adeno carcinoma, had just one month left to teach me some of the most important lessons ever. Lucas knew these intimately and lived them every day. I am still his student.

Things you've taught me:

Always show your deep love and devotion when someone you love enters the room.

When there's a crowd, hang back but be near and strong in your commitment.

Forgive quickly, easily and completely so you can love the next moment.

Enjoy absolutely everything you can to the fullest, and show those around you your joy - even at the simplest things.

Be free and giving of your love and support when someone you love is hurting and distressed. Come to them on their terms to help.

Keep playing, even when you may not want to, and show those who love you that it matters to them.

Come when you're called, no matter how you feel - and stay really really close.

Trust the ones you love the most will always return, even if you don't know when or why they left.

When they do return, be open and ready to make a complete fool of yourself showing them your love.
Jump. Dance. Smile. Wiggle. Kiss hard and fast.

Let your eyes show the full depth of your emotions.

Be gracious and accepting when someone tries to help, even if you really don't want it.

When you're scared, come to the ones who love you for comfort and support.

When you just need to "be", and you feel pain or discomfort, let it out, let those who love you stroke your head and love you up.

Approach each day as if it were the first and last day of your life.

When there's anger around you be quick to move in and offer comfort.

Live fully, beautifully and completely in the moment as it happens.

The things you see in airports

2009-06-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

Ever noticed how the TVs in most American airports are always tuned to CNN? I love that, because it gives me snippets of the news as I fly on by. It's great. Except when the Breaking News story is one about a Continental Airlines pilot dying in the cockpit mid-flight. That's a little unnerving, happening right now in the SFO airport.

The plane was landed safely by the co-pilots.

As I was processing that, and thinking about a colleague who told me she was flying on 9/11 and noticed how eerie the DFW airport was, with all the TVs turned off, I heard a woman's voice right behind me, "It's a boy! I told her I thought they would have a boy!".

I turned to see three elderly women, seeming to be heading out on vacation, connecting to another flight through SFO. The woman who spoke had a cell phone pressed to her ear, tears rolling down her cheeks as she likely received the news of a new grand baby entering the world. She asked questions about weight, name, etc. and immediately relayed the answers to her travel buddies. They shared in her joy.

The circle of life continues, there for the observing in every airport in America.

Fair Food - A cultural right of passage?

2009-06-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have NOT been to a county fair, except as a dog show participant, when I was more worried about grooming space, the right bait and set up space ringside. Until yesterday. The San Diego County Fair is like nothing I have ever experienced in Canada. Not the PNE or the CNE, nope - neither comes close. Sure we have the same animal displays, petting zoos, 4H clubs, pig races, etc. And there's the guy with the super chamois and the kitchen gadget vendors with the microphones on headsets yelling, "It slices, it dices, it make smoothies in the morning!"

But the food here was crazy.

The left image above is the deep fried Snickers and Reese's booth
The middle above is deep fried artichoke.
The right one is Wendy eating the deep fried Snickers - you have to see it to believe it.

Not just hot dogs and burgers, candy floss and kettle corn. No no no - we are talking fair food. Mostly deep fried, and that goes for everything you can imagine. Deep fried artichoke hearts, deep fried Snickers bars and Reese's bars. Corn dogs the size of I don't know what. BBQ turkey legs so massive you feel like you are starring in a Flintstones epsiode. Raw cake dough, fried, then dusted with powdered sugar and called funnel cake. We had to really look hard for the frozen yogurt guy.

Food aside, god love America for figuring out how to do beer and wine gardens every few feet, complete with pretty decent live entertainment. We saw a fabulous tribute band who played Journey like Journey played Journey. Made me feel old - I knew all the words, and the guy on stage singing was probably 24 at best.

It was a total cultural experience. I feel like I've been through a right of passage in some way.

Melissa Etheridge - Live and Alone at San Diego County Fair

2009-06-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

Saw Melissa Etheridge last night, row 4 in Del Mar. Call us groupies, we have seen her probably 15 times. We saw her first show after 9/11 in Denver, on Oct 4th. She was very emotional, humbled by the events. We saw her last show (in Seattle) before she got the tragic news of her breast cancer diagnosis.

The anthem she wrote, and sings near the end of every concert now, "I Run for Life" has been played at more breast cancer fund raising runs than any other, and was inspired by those events.

Then there is the theme song she wrote for Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth"' - the lyrics of which were written and still say "a woman can be president" - because at the time it looked like Hilary would win. Now when she performs it she sings "a Black man could be president".

This soulful rocker, a girl from Kansas, is an inspiration in so many ways. She did the quintessential "pack up and leave", and headed for California. where she sang for years at the Que Sera on Cherry Avenue in Long Beach, living on tips. Whatever you think about her politics, and if good solid rock isn't your thing, Melissa is living her dream, made of her own doing. Every time I see her I am reminded of that fact. Last night, in the midst of this crazy (re)depression she thanked her concert goers and reminded us all to start with a little ball of joy right in our center, and see what happens when we feel it expanding out from there, touching others, and if not, making us feel better in the process.

Live free.
Speak true.

Homesick

2009-06-09T21:45:00.001-07:00

Ok, but it really DOES rain a lot there right?

This is a great piece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSLpaARIrV8

Nothing more to say than where you are from sticks with you, like a great plate of pasta to your ribs.

Law firms forced to shrink

2009-06-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

Another Sunday New York Times read and another ton of stuff to think about. This week's issue included a story about the impact the current economic malaise (I refuse to call it a crisis anymore, because someone needs to start heading toward the up and positive side of it) is having on big Wall Street law firms.

It focused on the challenges of making the tough decisions to lay off team members, and in some cases decades-long attorneys with big cases under their belts, second mortgages to pay on vacation properties and kids in ivy league schools.

After a couple rounds of lay offs at White & Case (one big firm) the article talks about "big" as a business model being bound for obsolescence. I think this has been coming for years, and it is perhaps only the current economic situation that has made it more real.

What is interesting is watching how companies deal with it. At White & Case they had three choices (probably the same holds true for any big business now): 1. Do nothing, risking the firm's survival; 2. Couch layoffs as decisions based on poor performance; or 3. Own up to the crisis and bid large numbers of lawyers good bye. They chose the third.

So very very hard, for the leaders and those who lost their jobs. Hugh Verrier, the company Chairman made what might seem a simple point, but for me it cuts right to the heart of company culture: "There were tough judgment calls," he said, adding that he tried as best he could to preserve the firm's culture and that the 'how' of the dismissals was at least as important as the 'why'."

While it was hard to read about the paradigm shift in such a venerable profession, and the loss of jobs for so many, there is a big part of me that thinks the changing the this natural order is a healthy thing. It's not sustainable long-term to have pyramid billings where clients pay for groups of associates to do they job, when some can be said to be training or watching, or back-filling in the event something happens. It's not sustainable to have the padded estimates by type of job, rather than the actual hours spent. This is true in many industries, not just law. Take advertising agencies for example. So the billing structures and client relations probably need to change.

I am down with that.

But what worries me in the midst of this paradigm shift is that as the "bottom line" takes on a greater focus, the kind of guidance, thought consulting and strategic advice given by professionals like these lawyers becomes commoditized. That runs the risk of shifting too far the other way, where the only "accountability" becomes an accounting metric. Equally as dangerous as the outmoded hierarchical big-bonus-jobs-for-life we see evaporating.

You'd think by now, after many of these cycles we would have figured it out - take pride in what you do, deliver great results, work hard, and look for new ways to innovate and add value to your customers, whomever they are. I have to believe that if we could do that, the natural order would win out and it would actually be the right answer.

And, high five to those leaders like Verrier who actually understand and value the importance of culture even in the midst of tough choices.

Read the full article here:

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/on-wall-street-the-incredible-shrinking-law-firm/?scp=3&sq=alan%20feuer&st=cse

Laetitia Winery Makes WSJ Top 12 list and Sends Facebook Friends a Special Offer

2009-06-04T17:34:00.000-07:00

This week the WSJ released their Top 12 Wine Buys. Check it out at:
https://www.wsjwine.com/mge9/mge9_sub.aspx

One of the wines on the list is a Laetitia Chardonnay, from the Central Coast (CA for all you Canadians), a winery where we are wine club members. Ok so that's cool news enough, except Laetitia has taken this media event and tied it into their Facebook site and promoted it to their friends and fans. When they first joined Facebook in April they had 181 fans within about a week. Now they have over 1,000. And they are a small niche production winery on the Central Coast. Not Target. Or Starbucks. Or the Oprah Winfrey Show. Or (insert name of your fave pro sports team here).

They are a small, superb winery on the Central Coast that in my opinion has done a great job of using Facebook the right way - to share excellent news and to provide a special friends/fans only incentive just for being there.

Check them out on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=719694825&ref=profile#/album.php?profile=1&id=82067522124

I cut their message only in the off chance some one is not on Facebook so you could see it in action:

WSJ's BEST BUYS offered at FACEBOOK discount

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 8:59am

Each year the Wall Street Journal puts a panel of acclaimed wine critics together to pick the top 12 of “America’s Best Wine Buys.” This year the 2007 Laetitia Estate Chardonnay was selected among the 12 and, while the twelve wines selected didn’t include a sparkling selection, WSJ named the Laetitia Brut Cuvee the “Top Fizz.”

The WSJ/Facebook Offer (while supplies last!):
We are excited to share this accolade and for anyone who mentions Facebook in the tasting room or ordering by phone will receive:
- 20% discount on the WSJ wines AND residual purchases
- 30% extended to any club members when mentioning Facebook!
- Bonus: Buy 6+ bottles and receive complimentary ground shipping

How to Order:
Call in or drop by the tasting room and mention "FACEBOOK." If calling in, please direct your 'Facebook Offer' purchases to Kristin Kate Smith at direct line 805-474-7641.

Pricing:
Laetitia 2007 Chardonnay, normally $18, now $14.40 for Facebook and $12.60 for Laetitia Wine Club Members!
Laetitia Brut Cuvee NV, normally $22, now $17.60 for Facebook and $15.40 for Laetitia Wine Club Members!

If you are a friend or fan you get a great discount on their wine to celebrate their WSJ distinction.
Great strategy.
Authentic answer.
No fake paid bloggers.
No made up personas.
Just a great business connecting with their loyal following. Now isn't that "social media" at its best?

Target® responds - just 18 hours later

2009-06-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

Ok so Target® meant what they said in their ad in the Sunday NY Times about getting back to me. I received this response from Julie at Target Guest Relations just 18 hours after sending my suggestion (see last night's post)

Dear Teri,

Thanks for letting us know how you'd like to make Target® even better!

It's exciting to hear the many ideas from guests like you and we appreciate your suggestion about having a "Give Back" day where our guests can help out others in their communities. There have been a lot of families hit hard by these tough economic times so, as part of this initiative, I'll be passing your suggestion along to our Senior Executives.

We work hard to make Target such a fun place to shop. Whether it's our merchandise, services or commitment to communities we serve, we're always looking for ways to improve your shopping experience and new ways to bring you more for less.

Sincerely,
Julie
(800) 440-0680
Target Guest Relations
www.target.com
[THREAD ID:1-6LKGBS]

I made it red, in honor of the Target bull's eye. A couple things to note... the message back to me was personalized and they spelled my name right. Very awesome in my world. Julie actually read my request because she expressly referred to it in her reply. And the last paragraph (and likely part of the first) is a canned reply that I am certain everyone got. Oh well, they've got to get their corporate message out somehow I guess.

Cool though. The original ad with this offer to send them my thoughts was likely seen by millions in Sunday's NY Times, and they took it seriously. It makes me say it again - I can't imagine a good old fashioned department store even 10 years ago doing this. It's the age of customer control in fine form.

Score one for Target, staying true to being customer responsive, even if partially canned.
Now everyone keep your eyes open for "Give Back" day at the Target in your neighborhood.

Someone else try this and see what you get back from them.

Sent to Target June 1, 2009 at 9:04 p.m. PST

2009-06-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

Following up on yesterday's post, here's the message I sent to Target today (more@Target.com). I will keep you posted on any response I receive, and when I receive it.

Hi Target types;
I loved the ad you ran in the NY Times yesterday. I hope you are sincere about wanting ideas for more things you can do for your loyal customers today, because I think it is in times like this when you can make a difference the most.
Here's my thought. It involves giving back to those who need it most. I know you already donate 5% of profits to local community efforts, which is awesome, but how about if you encouraged people to come to Target stores to donate clothing, household items in good order, etc. on one day each month and on that day they could receive a store credit of whatever amount made sense based on their donation to spend in your store that day? There are more people than ever losing their jobs, or getting their pay cut back, I think this could have a real impact. Target stores are a much more public place than say the local Goodwill drops, and you know as well as I that more people than ever, from all stripes, are coming to your stores looking to buy essentials at great prices. Why not make it easy to do 2 things - shop for those things you need, and give back to others all in one trip? You could control the cost to you by selecting one "Give Back Day" per month - make noise about it on Twitter and elsewhere, and there would be no way Wal-Mart or any other retailer could copy it.
What do you think? -teri-

In the meantime, Koose, great comment on yesterday's post. I can ALWAYS rely on you to dig up the source, no matter what the issue. For those of you who don't know him, meet David Kusumoto, well read, great writer and funny too.

http://davidkusumoto.blogspot.com/

What can WE do for YOU?

2009-05-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

Today's Sunday NY Times had a great ad in the front section that is such a sign of the times - not the "bad economic times" you hear about everywhere, but the consumer-controlled times.

It went like this:

HEADLINE:
Tell us what more we can do for you.

BODY COPY:
We're always looking for new ways to bring you more for less. Have a suggestion for making your Target experience even better? We're all ears.

E-mail us at more@Target.com and we'll get back to you shortly

{Target logo}

It's been true for many years that consumers are more in charge than ever. But I loved this ad because Target had the guts to actually state it out loud. Can you ever remember a time (for those Canadians out there) when the Bay or Eaton's would run an ad like that in a paper with millions of readers? Not a chance. I can barely remember a time when I called either department store and actually got a human on the phone in whatever department I was calling.

And Nordstrom became world famous, or at least famous in business schools for their customer-centric manifesto, "The Nordstrom Way" - which now seems so old hat and commonplace. Everyone's heard the story about the woman who brought back the snow tires, but Nordy's doesn't sell snow tires... they gave her a refund anyway.

Our expectations have certainly changed. I am going to try a little experiment and send Target an e-mail, then see if I get a response. Maybe I'll ask for longer store hours, or a latte machine with freebies for early morning weekend shoppers. Or maybe something more beneficial to others like a "Target makes a difference" donation box for clothing or household goods for people who have lost their jobs/homes, whereby shoppers who donate get a credit to spend that day in the store. I'll keep you posted. You may want to try the same thing and share any results you get.

It's a brand jungle

2009-05-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

I've been really busy this week, with lots going on everywhere it seems. The economy being what it is, the teams I work with have gotten even smarter and more innovative than ever. New ideas are flowing, new ways of segmenting customers into groups to communicate with about things that matter to them seem to be born each day. It is really invigorating. And a heck of a lot of work for everyone. We have web designers, print designers, developers, and production directors working night and day to make the most of every opportunity that anyone dreams up.

Somehow the "slow" times don't seem so slow right now. The "down" economy is not resulting in less work to do. All this is very good news to me, and to everyone I work with.

One thing I have noticed is the proliferation of new small consultancies and companies setting up shop in the marketing space. Social media experts are everywhere. Web 2.0 is becoming Web 3.0 ... or is that 3G? ... There are new formulas for measuring marketing ROI, new CMS systems for the next generation of Web design. New digital printing and print-on-demand technologies. New "world changing" case studies of how Twitter can save your business or make you a billion dollars and thousands of followers trying. Evolving copyright rules and regs. New must have systems and processes.

Everywhere you look people are reinventing themselves. That seems to go for brand companies too. Just a quick google search and you will find a miriad of purported experts, with decades of experience. Some in packaged goods, others in the service business, some in commercial sales, or ad agencies.

Every one of them seems to have their own formula for getting to the heart of defining and giving meaning to a brand. I pity the poor small business owner out there looking for a solution online and having to decipher process A from process B and all the rhetoric that surrounds it.

Whatever you call it, at the heart of it all isn't brand really about:
- who are you?
- what do you do?
- why does that matter?
- how do you deliver?

And then what does your customer think about it after they've had the chance to taste your wares, kick your tires, experience a stay in your shop? Does that at all come close to connecting with what you said you what to be? If so, I'd say whatever road you followed to get there and whomever's process you used - it worked.

My advice to anyone trying to figure out this space - it's not as complicated as we sometimes like to make it. Follow the few simple questions and be honest about every moment of truth.

Gratuitous Cat Loves Poodle Shot

2009-05-21T00:17:00.001-07:00

Jack the cat and his personal poodle, Tailor.

Tailor the poodle and her live squeaky toy Jack.

Whatever you call it, it's love.

No purpose here but to make you smile and remind us that even the most diverse creatures can live side-by-side lovingly.

Push or pull - who decides what gets produced, "We the consumer" or the teams producing?

2009-05-20T23:36:00.000-07:00

This video monologue by Joseph Jaffe takes me way back to a question a prof in first year posed on a Media Communciations exam. Who controls the media? Do we, as consumers of it - viewers, listeners, readers? Or the media themselves? Do they make stuff that then gets picked up as cool? Or do we as consumers signal what we will accept and they follow?

The classic active vs. passive consumer question.

It's fun to know this question is still being asked. I don't know the answer. I'd like to believe we are all active consumers.

It's even more fun to think about it in light of consumer generated content online.

Check out his post from Jaffe Juice here:

http://www.jaffejuice.com/2009/05/jjtv-14-the-king-acts-like-a-clown.html

Building a Brand Community

2009-05-19T23:40:00.000-07:00

Guy Kawasaki posted this story, in which he talks about building brand communities. He means online brand communities, places where people converse, engage, connect. The whole article is short and great. Find the link at the end of this post.

What I think is interesting is how much these truths hold true for any branded experience. Whether it's a retail store, a hotel, a product or service brand, Kawasaki's 1o tips are another way of discussing branded customer experience.

Focus on your customer’s needs.
Foster many-to-many relationships.
Think local.
Don’t create “more.”
Foster peer celebrity.
Say “hey.”
Let your advocates advocate.
Don’t merely moderate.
Keep it simple. J
Observe the 1-9-90 rule.

The last rule on his list "Observe the 1-9-90 Rule" relates to creators, readers and browsers of online content. Think about that in terms of fans, regulars, and passersby of your physical brand location and it's the same thing. 1% will be fans and they will be vociferous in their support, 9% may become regulars, coming and going as it fits their schedule and the other 90% may just pass by, but they may have heard what you are all about if your brand is clear and you take care to be intentional about how it is delivered at every moment of truth.

I love #4 too - "Don't create more". Just because it's out there doesn't mean you need to add it to your brand experience. What does your customer want? How will you provide that better than anyone else, and in a more memorable way?

http://blogs.openforum.com/2009/05/18/10-tips-for-building-brand-communities/

The new "weisure" class

2009-05-15T22:00:00.001-07:00

I saw something this week on CNN.com about the blurring or work and leisure time and a new(ish) term that has been coined to describe it – “weisure”. Beyond the kind of clever word it is, I know this concept to not be a new one. How many folks do you know, and maybe you’re one of them, who can’t go a weekend without checking the Blackberry or i-phone for a look at your work e-mail?

The CNN piece talked about the pendulum swing with big changes in cultures, like the blurring of work/play, and they suggest that “There’s no turning back the clock on the spread of weisure.” Dalton Conley, who coined the term is quoted as saying, “Every culture creates its antithesis. Eventually the weisure class could merge into a ‘getting back to basics’ movement and form something new.” {with thanks to CNN.com}.

I have spent a lot of time the past few months thinking about the pendulum swing in how homebuyers are shopping for homes today. Do more of them want smaller homes because of the cost to purchase and the cost to run (not to mention the green and sustainable issue)? Yes, some of our research shows that to be the case, in some parts of the country, and in some family formations. Will that be a temporary thing that will shift when the economy improves and we all go back to spending more freely?

Will there be a back to basics, or back to core values movement that really lasts? I keep hearing the economy, which must mean you and I who spend money to keep it moving, is “re-sizing”.

How far will the pendulum swing? Anybody got a thought on if this will last or be a temporary adjustment?

Connections and context

2009-05-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

A quick trip last weekend up to Vancouver.
A chance to see family - and we spent some great times together - coffee at fave places, dinners that lasted into the night, and Mom's Day brunch.

All good times.

But the highlight for me was seeing - IN PERSON - 2 of my dearest friends, one whom I hadn't seen in 4 years, the other probably 2 years.

On the theme of "community" and therefore connections, the meet up we had made me think about how the deep connections you can share with someone, no matter the context, survive and thrive over time. I am thinking a lot about community these days, in the purest sense, as I watch it grow and in some cases erode around me daily.

The three of us have all made different choices in life, and had very different experiences, even have very different family formations, but there is this thing about a connection that never dies.

What a trip, what a time.
The "comforts of home" were great. Kimmers and HAB both know enough about me that I can shortcut the background, skip over the back story and we're all caught up. And those comforts carried over to our very different hits and misses - the things we've each experienced in our own unique ways. Some successes, some failures, but all ours. Comforts of old friends and the connections they bring, even in our very different contexts.

Now that's community - and I love mine!

Community in many places

2009-05-01T17:14:00.000-07:00

I am in the Portland airport, waiting for a flight back to San Diego, which is only slightly delayed, 10 minutes or so. Much better than the 3.5 hour daily last Friday from Houston!

I've been thinking a lot about community this week, not the physical sense but just the connection of it all.

Last night in Spokane our team took me to a place called "Chaps" for dinner. What an experience! The visionary and owners, Celeste, opened the place 2 years ago in a home she moved from Montana. The old farmhouse had belonged to her grandmother who raised her. Her grandmother had a major impact on her life and she wanted to share it.

Celeste joined us for a glass of wine and told us her story. She talked about creating a place where you could come as you are, no airs, no need to impress others, just a place to be. she talked about a place where kids can be kids and just hang out, run around and enjoy the nooks and crannies of the place, the antiques, the chaps, cowboy hats and old books.

It was an adventure in discovery, in dining and in sharing stories about heroes we've all had and why.

The food was awesome, with old faves like home made mac and cheese, yummy oatmeal gooey cookies, and all portioned to make you literally roll out the door when finished.

Her clientele include the mom's group from our community Eagle Ridge. the local police officers' at the end of the shift, school board members, and more. I could see it. In fact, I could feel it.

That is community baby!
Check it out online or visit if you are in the area.

Anybody got any stories of these kind of special, treasured communities?

Community of nomads

2009-04-28T22:48:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we experienced the Encinitas Street Fair. It had a profound affect on me, a group of artisans, creators, photographers, and more - all selling their wares in the street on Hwy 101 along the coast.

It made me think hard about "community" and whether it is necessarily tied to a physical place. I believe more than ever now that place isn't a required ingredient.

Sure there are lots of street fairs I've been to before, and you have too.

But there was something about this one that said community, and has made me think of all the other nomadic communities out there.

What is "belonging" in a community of nomads?
What are the rights of membership?

Are you lonely out there?

2009-04-20T15:12:00.000-07:00

I picked up this month's issue of UTNE Reader, the first time I've read this mag in about 5 years because I was drawn to the cover article called "The Golden Age of Re-engagement". A short article, and the usual UTNE list of books for further reading and exploration at the back, it made me think. And wonder if there is a balance or a solution in here somewhere?

The premise is this - we devote more technology and devices to staying connected today than any other society in history, yet somehow studies are telling us (in case we haven't noticed it in ourselves) that we feel more alone than ever. The article cites a recent study from Duke University, the General Social Survey (GSS) where Duke researchers found that between 1985 and 2004 the number of of people with whom the average American felt they could discuss "important matters" dropped in half.

Then I got to thinking about being "neighborly" and what that means. I lived on the same street in Surrey, BC for 14 years, and I didn't know the names of more than 3 of my neighbors. Sad. We all got in our cars, drove to work (ironic though it is, for 10 of those years I worked out of my home!), spent the day doing whatever we do, drove home, closed the garage door (fortress of privacy) and did whatever we did.

We are just all too busy. It's easier to send a quick text message than it is to call someone. Though I was attempting to do that last night, to make dinner plans with friends and by the fourth text exchange it all seemed really stupid - we could have just talked. There's this feeling that a phone call might interrupt something. So what? Interrupt me already! Being neighborly or being a good friend used to mean visiting people. Now being nice to your neighbors means not bothering them (this according to the article again). I'm not so sure I buy that.

So where's the balance between the technology-mediated world and human contact?
How do we conserve energy in our over busy lives so we have something left for those random neighborly encounters mid-week when Paul and Julieann next door walk over with a bottle of wine and some good conversation?

Will work for food - entreprenuership in a bad economy

2009-04-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

Did anybody see Rob Walker's piece in the NY Times Magazine yesterday? He writes a column called Consumed, every Sunday in the NY Times Magainze. Here's a post from last summer about bottled water and the environment:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/magazine/01wwln-consumed-t.html

He also published a book a few months back, still relatively new, called Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are. It is a great read, and will give you lots to think about and talk in your communities at work and play about.

Anyway, yesterday's column was great because it was about being an entrepreneur during tough economic times. He focused on a company called GarmentValet.com, started by a couple of college guys a few years back, and now built into a $950k/year gross revenue business. Like the name suggests, these guys will pick up your laundry and bring it back clean. Their core differentiator is service. They realized the market for such a service in downtown buildings without doorman and therefore hard to get in to. To overcome this, and not just do what so many others had done, which was walk away from a captive, busy audience ripe for their service, they developed a "virtual concierge" and locker system in some of these buildings where customers could drop and pick up on-site at their building, but in a location that didn't need a doorman.

So what right? Well, read the article if you can and you may be struck as I was by this simple truth, "The story of the young company is a reminder that entrepreneurship often depends more on successful execution than radical reinvention. Now is the time to show people that you can kick service up and give them what they deserve. The economy is what you make it."

So true, and so totally rewarding, to take the chance, do your own thing, and realize you are in charge of every response your actions create. It doesn't take a complicated "save the planet" kind of idea that you may be paralyzed looking for, convinced that every other good business idea is taken. It just takes a focus on the customer's needs, and attention to detail to ask yourself how you might meet them. We all want clean clothes right? Then it takes discipline to deliver.

Like follows like?

2009-04-09T22:36:00.000-07:00

This question has been on my mind for a long time. Does like really follow like? And if so, are we doomed forever to homogeneity? The old systems of order, around land, family, faith, class, tradition have given way. They've been replaced, some would say, by a new order based on individual choice. While we may have created our own "individual" categories or subcultures to belong to, these like-minded homogeneous groups are very strong, and can grow more extreme in their thinking, discouraging dissent and open dialogue.

When I was in elementary school, Grade 4 I think, I remember our teacher showing us a film about a group of students in California who couldn't understand how Nazi Germany flourished in WWII. The film was horrifying and illuminating. It showed how something as simple as a secret handshake can grow into an almost impenetrable subculture. It becomes a giant feedback loop, where we hear our own thoughts bounced back to us about what is right and wrong.

Perhaps naively, I really hope these individual categories and subcultures that we are all creating can develop ways to look across the lines and through various lens at each other's perspectives. If we can do that I believe a whole world will open up for each of us.

On tonight's news there was shock and horror that President Obama would even consider bowing upon meeting the Saudi King. I failed to see what the fuss was all about. So what if they are actually peers on the world stage? His gesture, which I am saddened to see his team now backpedaling to deflect, was one of a person showing up in another country and showing respect to that country's culture. Big deal. Does that make him weak? Or less of a leader? I can't see why. But if we come from the perspective that he is the leader of the free world, and that said free world is predominant over all, then you can see why many folks are horrified.

Like follows like.

Maybe the deal is we need to drop "like" all together, and just "be"?

Eyes for observation

2009-04-08T23:21:00.000-07:00

With so much around us to observe how might we break out of the routines we are all in to really see what the inspiration this observation can hold? I try and stay fresh by asking "why" and then "why" again.

Again, credit goes to IDEO's Jane Fulton Suri for making me think about this.

Take any simple example of people and place. How do people and the built environment interact with each other in the simplest places? Why does it work the way it does? Why really?

Innovation and change comes from seeing what is, and then creating new ways it could be.

So why is the key pad on the outside entrance to our building placed just far enough away from the door that I have to stretch to zip my key card over it fast, then reach to yank to door open before the sensor expires? Why is that? I am NOT an architect, in fact, am far from it, but I ask myself that question every morning when I spill my juice trying to balance and juggle my bag and key card.

If someone walked it, lived it, observed it, then built it I wouldn't be asking "why" and "why" again.

Observing the everyday

2009-04-07T22:15:00.000-07:00

I came upon Jane Fulton Suri's book again tonight, "Thoughtless Acts" and it made me think about the physical world around us and how we've all become such pros and masters at coping within it.

Have you ever noticed how so many things in the day to day world you live in don't work, or aren't convenient? Like getting luggage on and off the rental car shuttle bus. Or signage on most freeways in most major cities that lead nowhere. Or the chair in the salon when you get your hair cut, and you need to lean back just so to get your head in the sink, but it just never seems to fit quite right.

Suri's point, and I agree with her, is there is a lot of inspiration to be sought from real life and the mundane day to day. It is easily overlooked when we become preoccupied with our routines, roles, and traditional domains, and their established processes.

There's a lot of inertia to be overcome by breaking out of these habitual ways of working and thinking, and even getting out and just observing directly the world around you. It's in this observation of routine things, places, processes, that innovative ideas for attending to things that may be broken that we have learned to take for granted can occur.

Try it sometime and see what you see.