The human side of business

Archives for June 2016

Big Life

For the Originators

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This is copy I wrote for a rug company - but it seems more like a love letter. But guess what? No one wants to hear about rugs. They want to buy a feeling - a sensation - an idea. Good creative often comes from unexpected places.

When you’re the one in an organization or team or universe who generates the “first draft/concept/idea” for things, you’ll see yourself in this post right away. There can be a lot of pressure in this role – mostly because before there’s any “there” there, no one has anything to react to. But once you’ve put thought to paper / idea to prototype / color to design / post to publish / paint to canvas, people feel free to criticize, analyze, metabolize – suddenly there’s a conversation (that wasn’t happening before you started it.). I know I’ve sometimes felt resentment over this position – other times (most times, actually) I expect it and enjoy it. But someone has to start somewhere, and if that’s you, there’s a certain excitement / burden around it.

You may find yourself occasionally wondering if there’s anything left to say, to create, to make, to express. Looking at nothing before you make something can be intimidating as hell. As a professional writer, I’m usually the first one. The team often waits until I generate the strategy document, the concept, the copy, the tagline…and then base their work on some foundation using that work. Sometimes this feels fine – totally natural. Other times I’ve wondered…is there anything left in here?!?!? What can I say that hasn’t been said?

A few tips I try to give myself when I’m scraping bottom of the barrel:

Aim low. Land high. This is something Tim Ferris and others also use to get out of consternation and into production. A scientist at Stanford uses flossing teeth as the analogy. Want to floss more? Start with your front teeth only. Soon you’ll realize how lame this goal really is, and you’ll be a flosser in no time. When it comes to ideas and creative, just generate bottom of the barrel – knowingly – and let it iterate. Ferris talks about “two crappy pages a day” when writing a book. It’s good advice because by setting the bar low, you can’t help but do better. And then better. And soon really freaking good. But aiming for “opus” out of the gate is a set up to disappoint yourself.

Reach in. Not out. I think a lot of us imagine our creative ideas and energies live somewhere outside of us. This is a myth. Everything you’ve seen, read, experienced, cried about, laughed about, wow’ed about, been about – is in your ecosystem of ideas. Your source material is you – and everything you’re connected to in the current of collective thought and divine (if I might)… energy. Believe that it’s inside you, not outside you – and start there. There’s so much less mileage involved when you start with yourself instead of trying to go to the moon and back.

Great copy, great ideas, great products start as seeds from somewhere – where they end up is up to you. Your mind is a well of creativity that’s never really in danger of running dry. Your machine needs to rest to churn it out, but it’s not going anywhere. It’s one of the only assets that when spent, just keeps growing. To use it is to multiply it.

Big Life

Chief.

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Gloucester Police Chief Leonard Campanello at police headquarters. Don’t let that federal lighting fool you - he shines from the inside out.

Chief Product Officer.
Chief Creative Officer.
Chief Executive Officer.
Chief-of-Everything-Officer

As business owners, we are all chief of something (many of us the latter.) But how many of us assume certain issues are just “part of being in business,” or “part of being the boss” or part of “working with people.”?

This short story is about a local Chief of Police who did an unusual thing: he stopped arresting drug addicts and started saving them instead. He changed the story on “it’s just part of being the police.”

As you can see from the news, this country has an opioid addiction issue. Heroin is rampant. Prince just died of a Fentanyl overdose. Where I live, on the north shore of Massachusetts, 4 people in the small town of Gloucester had already overdosed by the second month of last year. This police chief took a deep breath with that news – and decided to take action.

Last winter, he posted a message on Facebook that read:

“Any addict or dealer in Gloucester is invited to bring in needles and drugs, and turn themselves in, without arrest. You will be offered assistance and rehab, no questions asked.” His mission? Immediate and sustainable care for anyone who wanted it. He got 39,000 views from across the state and country.

I assumed before interviewing him that he had pre-organized beds in rehab centers and a volunteer program to assist – but guess what? He had no plan. No connections. No infrastructure. No volunteers. He said, “We had no idea what we were going to do. The solution came from putting out the message.” He took a leap of faith, got others involved in the conversation, and as a result – created a solution that involves volunteer “angels” who have helped build a model being adopted across the country.

A year and a few months later, he counts 120 police departments in 28 states who use his program, 300 treatment centers, 60 million dollars in scholarship funds – and 450 addicts helped through treatment. That’s pretty impressive for a village law enforcement officer. He’s been featured on NPR, in The New York Times, The Boston Globe – he’s a hero (who, by the way, gives most of the credit to his team. Of course.)

It’s easy to feel despondent about problems in our midst. I know I do – and it comes from not knowing how to help or how to change my own habits or how to move boulders up mountains and even how to communicate better. So often it can feel like its people who stand in our way or ruffle our feathers or make life harder, but often it’s a process or belief that has been allowed to proliferate. When teams flail or fail, something systemic happened…no one intentionally brings a ship down, right?

Here’s to arresting the problem, not the person. That’s the kind of Chief I want to be.

Small Business

The Problem with Passion

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SMARTY in its heyday. Had I followed the “Never Give Up” advice, these events would still be happening, at a loss, without the critical mass they needed to thrive. And, this blog would not be happening.

Never give up.
Just be yourself.
Go with your gut.
Just hang in there.
Follow your passion.
It’s meant to be.
Something better will come along.

Many of the monikers above are common refrains from the media, our friends, colleagues – the motivational posters you see at the dentists office. They just sound good, right?  The New York Times recently ran an article titled, “Be Yourself is Terrible Advice” based on the writers experience preparing for a Ted Talk in the Age of Authenticity. Is our collective agreement about what to do when you don’t know what to do…flawed?

Back in the day, when SMARTY hosted monthly panel discussions with entrepreneurs, I asked each speaker to re-think any recommendations around “passion.” The majority of them were surprised at my request – which was – “It will be natural to tell the audience that they have to find their passion and follow it. And it’s not that this is untrue – but it’s not the whole story – and coming from you, it can’t be the pillar you hang your success on, because most likely, it isn’t.” Not one of them ever disagreed. Passion is part of it – but it’s nowhere near all of what keeps us going, builds a successful relationship, business, spiritual practice…

Passion waxes and wanes, and further, we’ve almost become anesthetized to the word’s potency. I would say find your compass is better advice – because it’s more closely connected to purpose. Your compass is a guiding North Star that doesn’t fluctuate based on fatigue, disillusionment, relationship or markets. It doesn’t rely on speed or intensity – just coordinates and direction.

And should you “Just Be Yourself”? – probably not. It’s not specific enough. What we think we’re saying is “don’t be someone else” which may have some merit. But to “just be yourself” doesn’t take into consideration the audience, the format, the end goal. It’s too vague. Which means it’s not that useful.

My favorite is “Never Give Up”  – because sometimes you should give up. Many of us are so committed to this idea that we never give up in the face of dozens of factors begging us to walk away. We don’t give up because that would be… “giving up”(bad!)….not because giving up is actually going to save us, heal us, create a better environment for success, give us our time back, our heart back; give our efforts a more fruitful outlet.

Question the common cliches. They carry some truth’s, some of the time, but they’ve been positioned as highest truth’s – and for that they are misleading. What we want are “laws” that govern a chaotic and unpredictable inner world – so we rely on these. But the better guardrails might look less like a tagline and more like a suggestion.

Maybe less “Just Do It” – and more –  “Let’s try this.”
Not as sexy. But your life isn’t advertising. So the copy doesn’t matter so much.

Small Business

Platforms.

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Yes, I realize these are heels, not platforms. #stillmakesthepoint

I probably can’t say anything new about social media that hasn’t been said. But here’s how I feel – as small business owners have a lot of questions about “the best platform.”

I look at them like this: When I read anything on Facebook, or post anything on Facebook, it feels like no matter what I say or what’s being said, it’s for sale. The UX encourages that, the ads, the un-beautiful design – it feels like FB is a way to raise your voice. It’s woefully inelegant, but very useful for some things. Instagram, on the other hand, feels more like a “by the way, this happened.” When I see posts or post myself, it feels like a snapshot of a thought – a moment in life – sometimes with words or hashtags, sometimes without – but I rarely see any shouting going on there. Twitter feels like talking at a Mets game. No matter how loud you might get, or clever, or funny, or cool, the game and the crowd are the real characters in that show. I see Twitter as a breaking news source – so for me using it sort of feels like whatever I’m saying should be as urgent as a Tweet from Anderson Cooper or as important as one from Malala. LinkedIn feels like a civil conversation that I should be more disciplined about attending but I have a full plate as it is so engagement there feels disingenuous.

All of this is to say – everyone has their “platform” – and the type of business you’re in is the main consideration. Beyond that, channels express voices, and while I personally have thousands more followers on Twitter than anywhere else, it’s not where my voice feels the truest, which is Instagram.

The takeaway – know where you shine. It’s all just a conversation happening in different interfaces. But we all want to be our best selves, so choose the face that brings out the best you.

Instagram

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About

SMARTY began as a thriving community in Los Angeles and Boston with weekly panel discussions and events designed to better understand the mindset and growth strategies behind successful entrepreneurs. Today, SMARTY is a weekly blog written by Amy Swift Crosby who chronicles her life as a creative, parent, entrepreneur and spiritual seeker. As an urban refugee living in a New England seaside village, she unpacks topics ranging from uncertainty and doubt to the built environment and advertising. More on Amy.

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