I spent the better part of 20 years in a variety of roles at Dupont Pharmaceuticals. In those halcyon days I felt like I was truly on a mission and part of a huge, loving family that actually believed that people mattered, and that what we were doing for our modality and our customers was actually a worthy goal.

I remembered feeling that If I ever did something that would bring about my termination, my biggest regret would be disappointing the wonderful folks who gave me an unbelievable opportunity. I couldn’t bear the thoughts of having to leave under those circumstances, or any circumstances for that matter. They had me. Emotionally, physically and spiritually. I thought it would never end. But it did. Our division got sold to Bristol-Myers Squibb and the change was immediate and devastating.

National Sales meetings turned into opulent exercises in incompetence and incoherency. The new CEO, aptly nicknamed “Joe Isuzu,” was hand picked from a used car lot on Pharma Row in New Jersey. Cringeworthy. I’ll leave it at that. The new V.P. of sales reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock on quaaludes. A stiff of immense void. Watching him attempt a sentence was painful. A total energy suck. I could see him possibly running the guard shack but sales?

My friend Dave’s sole responsibility was to intermittently place a mirror under his nose to see if he was still breathing. Oh, and to hand out twenty dollar bills to anyone who could spell sestamibi. I had never seen anything like it. These Fellini extras were about to take this enterprise to the depths of despair in a hurry.

While in Arizona as a rep, I developed some marketable skills as a video producer and was offered a position created solely for me back in the home office. If I thought the company was a mess from a distance, I was shocked at what I experienced once I came back. It was like “The Shining,” empty, dead quiet and spooky.  All office doors were shut and if you passed someone in the hallway they made no eye contact. Meetings were full of poker faced, terrified strangers. It was totally unnerving.

Then came the new V.P. of In Line Marketing, my new boss. We only met once, after a year, due to a question on one of my expense reports that she once, accidentally happened to look at. I guess her AA was off that day. She even had to print her own e-mails so she could read them. Before that meeting someone said “prepare to be underwhelmed.” She had no idea who I was. I started to develop a fear and a lack of trust that would dog me until the end.

It was then that I got introduced to a new corporate technique called “spend that money.” I started getting e-mails from upper management telling me there was three to four hundred thousand dollars available to me for video tape and software.  Tape and software? It was written as $300M, so I asked around to make sure I knew what the “M” meant. I thought there had to be some kind of mistake until it was explained to me that I should quit screwing around and start spending that money before the next e-mail came. I had the most incredible video studio in the corporate world. I attended multimedia classes for a living. I would even fly world class editors in from New York and L.A. to personally train me. I took one for the team:)

The next boss I got was a V.P. of who knows what, the titles changed every 15 minutes. At my review he said, “I’m not sure what you do here but I’m sure you do a good job at it.” (Every word of that nonsense is true.) The only thing he ever asked me to do was make videos of all his on-line golf lessons. I decided right then and there that not one ounce of fuck would ever be given again.

The VP of sales finally retired and died two weeks later. (I actually thought he was dead when I met him.) He must have known where all the bodies were buried to get such an important job. When I would walk past his office he was either sleeping or looking at boat magazines. Otherwise, his desk was empty.

When the next CEO showed up, I barged in his office, threw copies of tapes, cds, music and examples of my multimedia work on his desk and told him he should either utilize me, send me back to sales or lay me off. He sent off an e-mail to the leadership team but nothing ever came of it until another money dump came along and they decided to put TV screens all over the site. Then I got busy. Real busy.

But by now the thrill was gone. The layoffs, re-orgs, firings and incompetent leadership had taken it’s toll. In some perverse way, not caring anymore can feel liberating. You spit the hook out and stop listening, stop believing and mentally start preparing for your next phase. You’re free!

The takeaway here is that when an organization gets an emotional hook in you, you will most likely give your best. You’ll care about how you do things. Not waste precious resources. Enjoy your co-workers and live the dream that you never want to end.

But when you give a bunch of mother ship rejects a responsibility beyond their pay grade and emotional capabilities, you hurt a lot of people besides your reputation and your business. Productivity runs down your leg while the slow, silent mutiny takes shape. As usual, you’ve become too big to succeed. The stiffs from the big house start showing up, good people leave and everybody loses. But that was probably always the plan, wasn’t it?

Like finding the elusive unicorn or jackalope, I have finally stumbled upon an organization so lacking in corporate bullshit and pretense that I feel compelled to share. In the current corporate environment, I see up close and personal the struggles to maintain the facade of a successful culture and cooperation between employees. It usually fails at almost every level.  At this company though, someone got the memo. They are growing like gang busters and are so convinced and determined that without a positive work environment and a strong feeling of family the whole venture will unravel. Good on ’em.

Human resources at this place is what it says it is: a human resource. The total focus is on the employee. Their main concern is how to maintain the current culture while busting through the roof. Hard to do but not impossible. Accessible leadership, a positive mission and a watchful eye will get them through every inevitable crisis. These guys are smart, they are not going to trip up if they can help it. Where the hell did they come from?

My personal feeling is that if you have to check in some place every day, this is where you would want to be. Regardless of the commute.

I am probably one of the most cynical bastards on the planet. My 30 odd years in the corporate world has stiffened my back, hardened my arteries and tightened my sphincter. I have watched over educated, self deluded executives tear apart whole communities with their inability to reach out, lead and communicate to the souls of which they have taken charge. They allow confusion, negativity and cynicism to fester. Leaders so out of touch with the human element it is embarrassing to watch. Not so with this new breed I am witnessing. They get it and they use it. They didn’t learn this at Dartmouth or Wharton, I betcha.

My work takes me deep inside companies of all sizes and shapes. I get up close and personal with employees and leadership to help them communicate their mission to the world. I know when someone is shining me on. I can tell when someone is rolling the company line at me. I can see the hesitation when someone is asked to say what they like about working there. I am a human bullshit detector.

So, I must say it was a delight to fall off the turnip truck and find a unicorn right under my nose. Finally. Savvy leadership, nice people with an incredible mission: saving lives. What’s not to like?

I don’t do groups. AA, Boy Scouts, Little League, large companies, speaker’s bureaus, networking groups, (there’s a waste of time for you) any type of committees, political movements or unions. Especially unions. You want to ruin something? Organize it. Add rules, hierarchy, more people, which will inevitably lead to politics, more rules, cliques, and the real killer, the quest for fairness. Fairness? Run Toto, run!

Then of course, inexorably, comes dissention. Throw a self possessed CEO on top with a blood thirsty board chewing on his ass for good measure, and there you have it, a clusterfuck of disorganized humanity. I’ve seen it up close and personal, I’ve witnessed it from a distance and anecdotally. Move along folks, nothing to see here.

I have watched small, beautifully run collaborations balloon into these unrecognizable bottom line lip service dispensers that even a hardened prison warden would pass on. It’s like that girl you had a crush on in high school. Back then you found the true meaning of lust. She had everything. You remember the obscene things you did to your pillow every night?  Of course, she married young to some up and comer and you watched that ship sail into the sunset. Bye, bye, love.

Over the years though, you started to see her at the super market as the the inevitable poundage started to creep up distorting her figure, the way she walked, (you loved that walk) and her beautiful facial features started to melt into that third (and fourth) chin. What happened here? Growth. The wrong kind.

Hey, I’m no day at the beach either. I’m damn sure if I went to nudist camp there are parts of my anatomy that would never get sun burned, save for that Friar Tuck blowhole thing I got going on up there. But that’s girth, or sideways expansion, as I like to refer to it.

I work with very successful companies, some just coming into season and could come dangerously close to the above social experiments. Some are aware and cautious and others are giddy with IPO disease. The smart ones will survive and thrive by getting big and acting small while others will hit the lottery and will self destruct over time. Like congestive heart failure, it’s that gasping, painful, agonizing process that no one survives.

It’s that slow chipping away and loss of meaning, besides the drive to hit the bottom line, that do these companies in. I can usually tell it’s starting when some unhappy looking employee calls me in their office and says “close the door behind you.”

Hi, I’m Bob, I’m an addict. Hi Bob, what are you addicted to? Everything.

I have what is known as an addictive personality. It has almost killed me on more than one occasion. It could still kill me. Probably will. Whatever I draw a bead on will become my inner demon. I will devour it’s innards much to the detriment of everything else. I will move relentlessly in that direction until another target drifts into my line of fire. I draw comfort and solace in the losing of myself. Period. Drugs, alcohol, exercise, computers, music, literature, writing, meditation and nutrition. Nothing is off limits. I will pull those covers over my head and not come out until I’m ready. This can be both beautiful and painful.

My last day as a bearded, shaky, drug infested, fat fuck, was May 20, 1979.  A day that will keep a drink out my hand until I shit the big bed. Even if I get a bad diagnosis. Done. That road is closed forever. It was a Sunday. It was overcast and dreary and so was I. I just couldn’t take anymore. That’s the way it works for me. Anything worth doing is worth over doing.

Someone from AA came to get me and took me to a meeting that night and I saw a ray of light. After a few weeks of pink clouding and feeling the life creep back into my soul, I started to get restless and looking for the next big thing. OK, if I’m not going to alter my consciousness anymore what am I gonna do? I’m not going to sit around this smoke filled hall and pine away on why I can’t drink anymore. I know, let’s do a one-eighty.

So I go from scotch on the night stand to cod liver oil. A cigarette, projectile vomit and the hair of the dog to a yogurt enema and a five mile run. I shave my coke infested beard, lose fifty pounds, go back to church and start baking my own bread.

The church thing didn’t last that long, I was sober now, remember? In six months I was unrecognizable.

Now, now, my family gets worried. Forgetting all the nights they found me on the porch or in my still running car in the middle of the street unconscious. Now they’re worried. So they pulled what would today be called an intervention on me. Some actually cried as they tried to figure out what happened to me. Great timing!

This type of behavior has been the cause of much frustration and fear to those who have passed through my life. I was once asked to give a talk at Salem State College to a group of mental health students on my 30 odd years of recovery and subsequent successes in all areas of my life. (I left out the failures.) I basically told them I just switched addictions or compulsions. I told them that once I understood the benefits of addiction and refocused, I could and will do anything.

If you want to confuse and confound a bunch of logical thinkers run that shit by them. The professor was not impressed. Only two people ever got me. My mother and wife. (In that order)

So now it’s 5:00 am. My heart is starting to pound as my body gets ready for exercise. I am now addicted to 10 mile bike rides every morning. No matter what. I don’t have time for this shit today. I have work to do. Besides, it’s raining.

But it’s got me. It won’t let up. I can’t work in this condition so I might as well give in. Where’s that goddam bike?

No rest. No peace.

Good!

OK, it’s Monday morning. I have a nasty low pressure headache and the video editing footage equivalent of Apocalypse Now staring at me. Need to work up to this. Coffee. And here they come, straight to my inbox, the bottom feeders. The pukey little opportunists who play off your every neurosis to help you become a success in spite of the fact that you are such a loser. Here’s one: “Five Leadership Lessons from the Beatles.” from Josh Linkner. Really? You had the whole weekend and that’s all you could come up with? I know you’re thinking, why don’t you just unsubscribe shithead? Because it never ceases to amaze me.

Who are these people? Seth Godin, Michael Hyatt, Jeff Goins, Josh Brogan and let’s not forget Hay House. They have the solution for everything. They have to constantly think up new bullshit to keep you on the hook. Every morning I read the list of stuff I get to my wife while she rolls her eyes. I smell an intervention coming.

Who’s buying into this shit? I could go on and on with all the inane titles I get everyday but you get the point. I even accepted a call from one of these guys and told him he was insulting my intelligence but he just keeps coming at me. I guess I get some perverse pleasure out of this nuttiness.

“How do you get to be that person? How do you get to be the person who is indifferent to what everyone around you is saying? You get to be that person if you have been through the absolute worst the world has to throw at you and coming out all right.” – Malcolm Gladwell.

This is my sister Anne. We haven’t spoken for years. My family suffers from Irish Alzheimer’s, you forget everything but the grudge. What she’s been through in her life would be worthy of a novel. She’s so much like my mother.

In my life, I am often accused of playing the geezer card. What I thought was cynicism, pessimism and negativity is really an indifference to what I see going on around me. I take nothing at face value anymore. I poke holes in everything. I seek my own counsel. If I don’t want to think about something, I don’t. What used to spark outrage hardly seems worth the effort. I am often more curious and amused if anything at this stage of my game. More importantly, I find myself waiting a beat or two before responding… to anything.

So as you can imagine, I am relieved to know that I am not depressed or suicidal. I am just indifferent. What’s the use of living a long life if you can’t call on your accumulated knowledge, wisdom and experience to keep you sane? Why go through the same bullshit song and dance over and over again? There’s no time.

I used to avoid the news out of fear I would succumb to the notion that the world will blow up at any minute, and it can. Now I have become an observer. I can handle it. I am wide awake. I am conscious. I am present. I am living.

If you want anything from me,  you have to make me care. If I want something from you, I have to make you care. Simple.

I heard once that the opposite of love is not hate, it’s apathy. But who gives a shit?

Want to blog but don’t know where to start? Well, I think I can help you out. If you want to communicate to the world your honest thoughts and vision, you need to be in the right frame of mind. I can’t express this more fervently. First, you need to have a bug up your ass that is tormenting you. The whimpering, teeth grinding, headache inducing, neck stiffening condition we all dread. Yeah, that’s the stuff I’m talking about. If you don’t have any of those symptoms, go play golf.

First, you need an issue. Be sure to immerse yourself in it just before bed so that it will interfere with your sleep. Find an uncomfortable bed in a noisy part of the house, put some peppercorns in your underwear and if you have street noise all the better. If possible, as a bonus, try to start an argument with your spouse right before retiring. Then, set the alarm for an ungodly hour. You have just set yourself up for a miserable night’s sleep with so little REM you will rise in such a foul state the dog won’t come near you.

Now, you’re almost there. When you do drag your miserable ass to the kitchen at 3:00 am, don’t make your coffee the way you always do, use you’re spouse’s creamer and skip the sugar. Nasty!

Now sit your ass down in front of the computer and let the venom pour out of your fingertips. Don’t hold back. Use subtle descriptions but not names of the people you’re pissed at so that they get it but no one else does. Rip into everything that is on your wrinkled, sleep deprived, sick mind. Yeah, like having a baby. Push! Push! Don’t re-read any of it, you’ll kill the essence. Keep going until you feel sleep start to overtake you. Yes! Oh, the joy!

Now, here’s the important part. What you have just created will probably lose you a bunch of friends and kill any possibility of a legit job in the corporate world. You need to know that up front..and relish it. Leave any typos, misspellings and grammatical errors in place. Before common sense kicks in, take your sweaty, shaky fingers,  grab the mouse and hit the publish key. Quickly change your blog password to something you know you won’t remember later and go out for pancakes.

By now you probably have a migraine, loose stools and a severe case of blogger’s remorse, but you have accomplished what very few bloggers on this planet will ever achieve, you have become… interesting.

Here we go again!

Full disclosure: I have been reluctantly complicit in many a dopey corporate video over my long career. I am swearing off for good. Nope, can’t do it, wouldn’t be prudent. To me, it’s art. It’s communication at it’s highest level. It is beyond cool. Look, be nasty, be shocking, be cutting, be sarcastic, rude and condescending if you must, but don’t be… dopey!

Dopey is a word I reserve for the worst of the worst. The offenders who assault us on a daily basis with drivel and meaningless bullshit they don’t even believe themselves. It comes at us from all directions, marketing ads, political endorsements, attack ads, Marie Osmond and my favorite, furniture company videos. What are we, lemmings?

Have you never gotten a shiny ass from your seat enduring these politically correct rolling  blunders? We should share information not inflict it. Put yourself in the audience and try to feel what they do. Empathy. It’s easy to forget when you are on the other side of the camera. Do I have examples of my part in these crimes against humanity? Uh, well, my hard drive crashed so I guess I’ll take the fifth.

Prologue:

So, who is this “Enlightened Rogue” person? Bob O’Hearn is the oldest of 10 children from a (violent) Irish-Catholic suburb of Boston called Somerville. He has been expelled from both catholic and public schools, spent a year in a juvenile facility, went to Viet Nam, (he says it was like Club Med) attended Berklee College of Music, The Chef’s training Institute, picked up a nasty drink and drug habit, kicked, cold turkey, found and lost Jesus, shed 50lbs, sold radiopharmaceuticals for Dupont and Bristol-Myers Squibb and found his wife and his life’s calling in his 50s.

Bob is now President and CEO of Double O Creative along with his lovely V.P. wife Susan. Besides keeping him on his meds, kicking his ass and making sure he takes out the trash, Susan has her hands full and she does it all without drugs. We think.

Sales? How could such a thing happen?

This is an excerpt from a book I am writing on how I miraculously got a sales job for Dupont selling radiopharmaceuticals and what happened during that crazy period. I spent most of my adult life up to that point as a professional chef, musician and erstwhile stand-up comedian. None of which required sobriety or any form of coherency. Actually, it wasn’t allowed.

When I was 35 and finally chemically clean, my brother John got me a job on the dock at Dupont pushing radioactive packages around. I thought, this is working? I was having a blast. This was the most fun I could have with my drawers up. Amazingly, I would soon find myself relocated to Arizona with a sales position and a couple of thousand people to inflict myself on. What were these people thinking?

Sold Out?

On June 19, 1990, I got the call at almost midnight from a district manager offering me a sales position involving Arizona and New Mexico. We had some preliminary discussion about an opportunity like this before, but I thought once they looked into my background, it wouldn’t happen.

As I accepted, I immediately started to worry about how long I could hang on to the job before they discovered their gaffe. After my first National Sales Meeting, I was disabused of any fancy notions I had about sales, marketing and the corporate world. I thought to myself, at least I knew how to drink without mooning someone.

After my move to Arizona, I spent about three months trying to get some detailed instruction on how to proceed in my new career. During which time I nearly had several nervous breakdowns because I never really got a satisfactory explanation. The advice my counterparts were giving me was hysterical. I thought it must be a setup. My first official task was to give price increases to 109 existing customers. I was traveling with my boss at the time and I asked his help on how to proceed. I had never seen a sales spreadsheet before.

We sat outside our hotel in Albuquerque one balmy evening and I pulled out the reams of computer paper and started reading them upside down. When I could make sense of what my new customers were paying, I asked him how much he thought I should increase each account. His response was “what do you think they ought to pay?” Huh? I had no clue. He told me to increase the prices to whatever I felt was right. This made no sense. I didn’t even know who these people were. I was still taking hospital janitors to lunch.

Anger replaced fear, so I went up stairs to my room, ordered coffee and made the whole thing up just to get it out of my sight. I just threw numbers at every account for no particular reason until they all got a bump. I gave him the paperwork at breakfast. He never looked at it, stuffed into his brief case and I took him to the airport. I worried myself sick over the reaction of the in house crowd and the sure to come ridicule.

Three weeks later, I got a call at my house from my boss asking how I came up with the numbers I gave him in my territory plan. Before I could answer, he told me the number was exactly what marketing was predicting and all the pricing was spot on. You sure you’ve never done this before? “Nice work, Bobby!”

That was the first of many confusing experiences I had in my new career. As time went on I learned to play the game. The experiences I had and the people I met and worked with, the places I traveled to, and yes, what I had to do after dark to keep my sales numbers “up.”  I was single after all, and my Syncor rep let every lonely female tech in every competitive account know that I was looking to settle down. I can assure you I wasn’t interested in someone who spent 12 hours a day in a dark room, had a mustache and wrestled on the weekend.

Fair balance:

Now, during my sales years, if you and me have ever crossed paths, worked, traveled, or did “business” together during this period, you might be fair game, and you feel you might get a little worried. Please, go ahead.

You guys all had a good laugh when that female tech’s dog bit me in the ass as I was leaving her house. It turned into an scandalous on the job injury and lots of water cooler chat about the famous Dupont experiment. Me! The bizarre stories coming back from the field were aptly named “Hearnage,” a play on my last name and carnage. So many stories I could almost write a book. Wait!?

Well, it’s time to buckle up kiddies, we’re gonna have a little fun while I still have some gray matter left.

Coda:

I have found through years of research and personal experience that being naive and gullible can have its advantages, and that if you don’t get enough formal education to hurt you, and your libido is in fine, working order, the more successful you will be in your sales career. Stay tuned.

Well, who do you think you’re talking to? When you are developing content, whether it’s a blog, a video, or any form of social media, do you fall for that little trick your mind plays on you and visualize one or two people in your head and run in that direction?

When I get a new subscriber or a comment from someone about a certain article, or inquire as to whether or not I am losing control of my faculties, it’s hard not to let those comments color your messaging. It’s like reading your own reviews, or being on stage and playing to that one person in the audience to gauge your performance. Once that image gets posted to your mind’s eye, it’s hard to shake it off.

When I am writing, I usually let whatever word or phrase that pops into my head first thing in the morning guide me and riff off of that. Who knows what my subconscious has been up to over night, but I trust it and take the bait. Caffeine and Flomax have a strange effect on me so I usually write furiously, following my train of thought or emotion without looking back.

I am in the curious position of joining the choir before the church got built in that for the last fifteen years I have been promoting content development, or whatever overused term it’s called these days and dreaming of the day when video would be used in sales, marketing and all forms of training and education.

Now that we have the weapons, we need precise targets or we will alienate whole segments of businesses and not get them back. That’s what’s missing in this new world, viewer empathy. A thorough understanding of what our message is and how it will benefit our tribes is critical before we pull the trigger.

So, who do you think you’re talking to? It’s a question you should ask yourself before starting any on-line campaign intended to educate, inform or “move” an audience.  It’s not “Ready! Shoot! Aim!”

Too many cooks…?

Yeah, yeah, I know, when building a large corporate project like values or a mission statement, everybody should have a say. Everyone should participate so we can wrap a bow around it and present the results to the rest of the company as a “team” effort.” In a perfect world, well of course. But the larger the group, the longer the process, and the more it starts to look and feel like a jury pool of reluctant participants.

In some cases these folks are drafted into the process by a manager who wants someone in his group to represent them. Fair enough. Everyone wants some of their pee stain on the carpet. But when committees can’t commit because they lose sight of the overall goal and vision, then it falls to the facilitator to snap the group out of it and bring them back to earth.

In my opinion, the person running the show should at least have a possible end in mind when undertaking the project. I call it bringing them around to my conclusion:)  I joke. Kinda.

With all the grandstanding, personal agendas, fear of looking silly, political correctness, focus on minutiae and of course, those seat warmers who are singing to themselves, “If you’ve got the money honey, I’ve got the time.”

Welcome to Malfunction Junction. It’s not unusual to hear one of the group say after the meeting “did we just agree on something?” They were in the “zone free” zone.

We’ve all heard the term “death by committee,” well, it’s real, look at the government. These opportunities should be a learning experience, not a marathon. The person in charge should have the talent and experience to question, cajole, direct and facilitate these jurors to a unanimous verdict. Court dismissed.

I’m hearing a lot of talk lately about how it’s OK to be “informal” in the external corporate videos you post on-line. As long as it has audio and you at least get your eyebrows in the shot, it’s all good.

You can overlook your wrinkled shirt, the mic cabled splayed across your chest, the elusive, eye rolling train of thought and the awkward interview style. Yeah, what’s the big deal?

Plenty. You’re not going to pop up on a computer or TV screen in such a disorganized example of afterthought and tell me you represent millions of dollars in revenue. No way.

Home movies are fun, but not when you are supposed to be showing the world you are the leader of your industry. When you don’t know what you don’t know, life is just peachy isn’t it?

We are all experts when it comes to viewing video after watching TV all of our lives, but when it comes to producing our own content, we become infatuated with ourselves, oblivious to the fact that the message left town and took your credibility with it.

After we all get through with “amateur hour” we will still have to get down to the business of making a credible impact on-line and tell the story. Sadly, the “hostage tape” business is alive and well.

My main mission in life is to get companies the respect they deserve by helping them pull the pieces together in all stages of development and keeping them on message. This can be a huge challenge. With all the differing agendas, world views and internal competitions, it can roll off the tracks very easily.

These projects can go down like a greased safe.

I’m still seeing final edits relegated to administrative assistants, scarcely written RFPs with “how much will it cost for a two minute video?” and “let’s just shoot it” requests.

Then there’s the inevitable, multiple course corrections and scope creep. The 40-20-40 rule should come into play here. 40% pre-production, 20% acquisition and 40% post-production. Plan the shoot then shoot the plan. Execute.

Now I can sit here and look down my pompous nose at these expensive attempts at self entertainment, but it’s kind of sad and depressing. The other end of the spectrum is when you realize you really don’t have a clue and you reach out to a straight video production unit, who, as you might be surprised to know, doesn’t have a clue either about what you’re trying to accomplish, but they’re not gonna tell you that. Then the fun begins.

Most likely, they have never spent anytime “carrying the bag” or delivering a marketing project and you can lose that critical eye.

In the hundreds and even thousands of campaigns I have been through, I’ve seen my share of pile ups. Without a deliberate, visual plan, an outcome in mind and someone to guide and keep these projects on message, you are not just wasting the money you have thrown on the table, but you will look like, here it comes, “a rookie.”

If you think even the so called untrained eye won’t pick it up you are mistaken. They won’t even know how to explain their negative reaction or disinterest, but they will drop off. It takes viewer empathy.

Your ideas and concepts need legs. You are trying to “move” your audience. The alternative is not acceptable. You owe it to your brand, your company and your employees to create a meaningful message and look like you have put some deliberate thought into your presentation. Not flop sweat and confusion.

Remember, they can tell.

If you are starting out or stalled in some stage of your project and I can answer some of your questions, feel free to reach out to me by e-mail or phone and I would be glad to hear from you. Let’s kick it up a notch. Good luck.

bo*@*************ve.com

508-517-6714

Is this a video shoot or a grand jury selection? This is one of the main reasons I have to explain to clients with prior experience in video production, that times have changed and they will still be able to pay off their kid’s college loans. Or go to Cabo. This is the usual studio approach to working up the invoice. Cha-ching! Showing up with a bus load of unemployed relatives and having them take turns yelling “action” and “cut” always impresses lay people. Until they get the bill.

Today, producers need to possess all the skills that each one of these “crew” would have performed on set. No more clapboard operators, teleprompter specialists, light pole handlers, audio and lighting techs and script supervisors.

I am a “talent wrangler,” which is my term for the make-up applier, tie straightener, mic adjuster and most importantly the “once more with feeling” guy. Or, what I like to call “The Hoarse Whisperer”,  a unique skill set I developed from years of being vomited on from the stage by corporate presenters inflicting “death-by-power point” on thousands of their snoozing captives. Live or on video. What a waste of time and money. Attention is currency and it gets frittered away at every opportunity.

If your running a company, you can’t afford to have your people walking around with less than 16% of the valuable information from your last town hall meeting or company update in their head. You need an emotional transfer to make it stick.

Performance is key whether you’re on camera or in person. Sometimes on a shoot, you have to get up close and personal to an executive and tell him or her their ball ain’t bouncing. You aren’t going to be able to direct someone about posture, facial expressions, delivery, or spinach in their teeth, with a whole football team and no particular job description in attendance. It’s hard enough to get someone to open up and “transcend the glass,” to move an audience emotionally, without the additional pressure of a standing room only gawkers.

People also think reading from a tele-prompter, if required, will sap a presentation of it’s energy and enthusiasm. Not so. If the information is critical and specific it will need to be delivered properly. With credibility and feeling. Like anything else it’s an acquired skill and worth the effort. On camera reading or tele-prompting is not going away. It sure beats eye-rolling, ums, ahs and blank expressions. The world is watching now.

Today’s producer needs to plan the shoot and shoot the plan. Totally understand editing, animation, graphic design and how to process for digital signage, on-line viewing, which includes all computers, , tablets and smartphones. The whole shooting match. (pun intended)

Add live streaming events to that list and you open up a thousand more possibilities that can possibly mis-fire, but the impact is more than worth it.

This new breed needs to see the big picture and have strategies and tactics that will suit the specific organization, personalities and their mission. In other words, as far as time, money and finished product is concerned, you can do a whole lot more with a whole lot less and have a better viewer experience. ROI, without the circus.

Ah, yes, the unicorns of the business world. Hey, Rocky, watch me pull a concept out of my hat! These terms make me mental. Like hitting the lottery or a balanced budget, nice, but the odds aren’t there.

I actually know adults who use these terms with a straight face. As one psychologist told me, “Forget balance, show me how to juggle.”

Here’s my thinking: The world is not balanced and it’s not fair. It’s admirable to strive for balance, but it never works. At least not to everyone’s satisfaction. Fairness? Please! This ain’t baseball, it’s life! Not that we shouldn’t keep striving for balance and fairness but we should understand that they’re nice fluffy concepts but not always reality.

There will always be some crybaby that is gonna grab the mic and start getting all Patrick Henry about how inconvenient his work life is, that there’s not enough balance and that’s just not fair. Oh, does somebody need a hug?

Well, in case you haven’t noticed Dorothy, there’s a shitload of imbalance and unfairness going around these days, so you might want to pull yourself together, get over it and pitch in. There’s the cure right there. Ask not…

When you truly care and have a “how can I help attitude” you’re not focused so much on yourself and the distribution of good fortune back to you. You also won’t have a breakdown when you get your “tough shit” ticket punched. Which inevitably, you will.

When you throw the “that’s not fair” thing at me, I have two thoughts: you’re either a five year old, or a certain thing didn’t go your way. But alas, you will always be among us so we will have to endure.

I think “as much as reasonably possible” should be added to both the “Work-Life Balance” and “Fairness”concepts.  Fair and balanced? That’s only a  Fox News line and that’s a load of fertilizer!

Yoo hoo! Time to come out of there all you brainiacs! We see you in there! All you market research robots, IT code monkeys, global business developers, international sales directors and the rest of you prisoners. Oh, almost forgot, finance people. You guys are usually stashed in a bunker somewhere. Today is your lucky day, you’re going to become part of the world again. The days of no eye contact and monosyllabic grunts to no one in particular are gone.

Full disclosure: I am a recluse. I watch Lock Up Raw on MSNBC (another form of punishment) and think getting thrown into administrative segregation or the hole would be a vacation. I can go days, weeks or months without leaving the house, or speaking if I didn’t have to. I have always been able to entertain myself under the most mundane circumstances. When Susan is away my voice box would atrophy if it wasn’t for my dogs. I mean, you have to say something when they shit on the rug.

BUT, when I’m around other human beings, it is so totally rejuvenating. I absolutely come alive after my shot of humanity. All my synapses are firing and any aches, pains or worries disappear. It’s extremely critical in today’s world where the rise of digital and online communications means that the person to person experience is disappearing as we rely less on the up close and personal. You must turn that around if you want to survive.

Which is the focus here: The critical importance of overcoming digital isolation. Being a genius in a dark room where being recognized and rewarded is based on how many golden eggs you lay is not sufficient anymore. You are being outed. Whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur, we are all in sales, we are all trying to make a lasting impression.

We need to ensure that no one ever says, “who’s that guy, what does he do? You need to wire that institution. Meet new people or reconnect every week. It’s amazing when you start opening up your world and getting the big picture. Call it sales, call it politics, it’s vital. You need to be seen and heard in more places than the cafeteria or the awkward wait at the towel dispenser in the restroom.

With all this technology flooding our lives and dulling our senses, you will need to be remembered and thought well of by every one you deal with or come in contact with. You have to connect and it has to be memorable.

So wipe the crust  off your personality bunky, because now, more than ever, you are going to need it to be a marketable commodity. Be in the moment. Be totally awake at all times. Don’t get lulled into that false sense of security that a repetitive job function brings. Look at what you’re doing. Really look and think how you might do it better. Before someone else does. Learn to toot your own horn without being obnoxious. (There’s an art form right there.)

Learn to listen to people, really listen. Deeply. Be the Linchpin. Speak up constructively at meetings. Contribute. For God’s sake, make some eye contact.

Memo: You are not a mushroom.

Yes, turn that thing down willya? Turn down the noise, the racket, the massive amount of people you’re trying to persuade with every message. The spray.

Volume has a couple of distinct meanings: one is the degree of loudness which can be translated in social media terms as the level of noise someone generates: e-mails, blog posts, tweets, etc. It is also the amount or quantity of something that fills a space.

The amount of noise out there is deafening when it comes to the reach and frequency of messaging to a wide audience. When your business model depends on a loud message to move an audience of tens of thousands of subscribers, followers and potential paying customers, then your message will certainly have to be watered down and generalized to be all things to everyone.

I receive dozens of these types of messages a day all designed with urgency to make me feel like they’re talking to just me. It’s commendable, but they can and do, usually stumble, and where the effort falls short in my opinion. I follow all the top social media and platform building experts not only to learn, but to study and gain insight on patterns and what they’re trying to accomplish with their particular business model. I have a dog in this hunt so I pay very close attention.

Besides trying to “help” us make millions and become speakers, writers and in-demand personalities, I notice the one goal that ties them all together is volume. In order for one of their offerings to take off, it needs a constant flow of topics and insights that can be monetized, wrapped up in a package that will generate a window of opportunity. I see things from an assortment of random thoughts that veer wildly off course, trying to fit the square peg into the round hole.

This constant stream of reinvention is necessary to stay in the game, but turns laughable when “content block” rears its ugly head. The deals and life changing offers, which by the way, show real dollar amounts, attached to them as well as self imposed “by midnight” deadlines before this exclusive offer runs out is just so dumb and self defeating.

I just received this message “7 Keys to Becoming a Million Dollar Author or Expert” which is trying to entice me into joining a webinar today that will make me rich. I don’t unsubscribe to this e-mail foolishness because I find it fascinating to watch what depths someone will go to in order to pull you in. Expert in what? I might ask.

I don’t deny the right of anyone to make a lot of noise and gain a lot of followers or subscribers but I personally think volume based businesses could benefit from the 80-20 rule and speak more directly and intimately with an audience that really wants to hear what they have to say.

These helpful experts are trying to break the decibel level and fill the room with their brand of noise while most of us are tuning out.

To those folks I would only say, hey, it’s your foot, go ahead and shoot.

My opinion.

This is your brain on endorphins, or after bobbing for french fries. If you think some of my LinkedIn posts or blogs are a bit uh, non-mainstream, you should see what I come up with after a ten mile bike ride. I’ve made more sense after two hits of acid and a laxative.

Those deceptive little bastards manage to talk me into thinking I’m a genius, a master of the corporate universe and twenty pounds under weight. Oh yeah, and Ernest Hemingway.

What’s going on up there in nogginville? The stuff I’ve written before my sweat has dried and my heart rate has returned to normal is both horrifying and confusing. “Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time” only works in Three Stooges movies.

We all know it’s not right to feel that good about your self and probably not even legal. Why do you think it’s called dope-amine? Don’t listen to that stuff. It will lead you astray every time.

That’s why we’ve created the “Crash My Laptop Program” especially for you folks who become delusional and deranged after a grueling workout, This amazing program will not let you boot up or log in if it detects sweat on your finger tips or if your heart rate is above 70bpm, preventing you from becoming a laughingstock to your on-line community.

Endorphins once and for all. The mind is a terrible thing. The next time you feel that tremendous surge of enlightenment and passion after a workout, lay down and wait til it passes.

Ever wonder why the quarterback doesn’t meet with everyone separately before calling the next play? Imagine no huddle and everyone is just trying to improve their own stats or consumed with their own MVP trophy? Obviously, they would never get off their own 20 yard line.  You can imagine the unhappy team owner footing the bill for all these prima donnas with their own agendas, running in circles, and trying to best each other instead of the rival team.

Think “The Longest Yard.” A bunch of centers bent over and can’t find the football.

Don’t laugh, I see it all the time in the corporate world. More often than not, while working on a project with sales or marketing, I will bring up the fact that I am involved in a similar effort with Medical Affairs, the Reimbursement Team, Pharmacovigilance or manufacturing, creating relevant content that could be cross referenced like thought leaders, technologists, specialists or even patient interviews. Clue-none. Zero.

Awkward silence is usually followed by a nod to someone to look into it. Then that familiar stare back at me like I just pissed in their punchbowl. Oh, ignorance where is thy bliss?

Not coincidentally, the checks I receive from these disparate groups all have the same company name, the same bank, routing number and signature. Wonder how the C-Suite feels about this silo mentality? A group of pretty good sports I’m thinking. But then again, my experience has taught me the left hand, right hand analogy is still on the books, unless an owner/CEO is on the scene and we are squandering his life’s dream.

I have been fortunate enough of late to experience smaller, sharper, more  focused enterprises, teams that are always in the huddle and are able to execute on a moment’s notice. Choreography! It’s a sight to behold when these well trained players take the field.

Forgive the pun, but that’s the goal. To be a well oiled machine with all it’s moving parts in perfect sync. That means practice, open communication, global effort and a big-picture mentality. Otherwise, you’ll still be calling plays after the winning team has left the field.

The follies of yesteryear are fading as companies get leaner and meaner in the new world. Being a first round draft pick these days, will require a quarterback’s strategic and tactical prowess to get from one end of the field to the other with his traveling huddle.

Dear Dad,

It’s been 37 years since you left this earth at the tender age of 57. Your human presence has disintegrated, but your words and philosophies live on in me. You were such a curious type of man, a loner, practical, self sufficient and opinionated to a fault. You were also extremely intelligent, articulate, polite and charming. You revered David Susskind, William F. Buckley Jr., Shirley Bassey and Nat King Cole. You turned me on to Ravel and it was magic.

You could cross your legs, light a cigarette and carry yourself with class and dignity in any environment. I admired your vocabulary and the way you could make someone feel like they were the only one in the room. Your sisters tortured me with how wonderful you were.

Although 12 of us lived in one flat on a busy street in Somerville, you remained a mystery. You showered at work, took your meals outside for the most part, and on Sundays you parked yourself at the end of the couch in a cloud of L&M cigarette smoke, barely speaking to anyone until Curt Gowdy’s voice trailed off into early evening. Just before Davy Crockett.

The words “Dad’s home” could silence or evacuate the whole house. The sound of your car pulling up the driveway would loosen our bowels. I remember you taking us to your father’s grave on a rainy Sunday afternoon and telling us how he broke your nose when you hit your sister. The serene, accepting, look on your face gave me a chill. Maybe that’s where your violent nature began. If it didn’t, and we were the cause, it’s unbearable to contemplate.

With all your admirable qualities, you remained outraged at your lot in life and the circumstances that brought you to it. The teeming squalor and social pressures we found ourselves in, were overwhelming and embarrassing and nearly drove you off the edge. Your dark side legacy lives on in my male siblings through mostly loving, doting fathers, who would love nothing better than to “punch your face in” if provoked. Law of the jungle.

In my advancing years, I have to say I think I get you now at some strange level. Certainly, I’m sure you never anticipated what was awaiting you as a young man with the world as your oyster. I sometimes wonder if your spirit exists somewhere out there and you feel some remorse for the terror and injury you inflicted, both physically and psychologically.

Once, during one of your “chastisements,” I could see a glint of what I think now was a sad confusion in your eyes and I felt for you in some strange, sick, way. Stockholm Syndrome maybe?

Remember when I asked you why you had all these kids and you said you didn’t know? You were pulling my leg, right?

Just before you passed, I went to see you at the hospital to try and recover something, anything, from you that would give me the strength to carry on in my alcoholic haze. I desperately needed you to tell me that you cared about me, that you were going away and you would see me later in a better place.

Your frail, cancer riddled form lay there in the dark when I entered the room and I heard you say something to your departed mother in your semi-conscious state. I remember waiting silently for you to come around so we could have a final moment together. Just us.

When the moment arrived I moved over to the bed and sat down. I didn’t see your pain ravaged leg until I felt it under me. You screamed in agony and asked me what the hell was wrong with me. Just like old times, I thought. Anyway, you left us not long after and we never had our famous final scene.

I’m still trying to sift through the fragmented memories to pick out the gifts that were wrapped in disappointment and despair. I have, I hope, become a better man in spite of myself, as I know you already must have.

As I get closer to the end, I hope we can ease the pain of the past and forgive and forget all the nonsense we endured on this planet. I am however, eternally grateful to you for all that you have given me. Whether you meant to or not.

Bye for now, Bobby.

Hi, I got your e-mail today with that exclusive, one time, finally revealed, hidden trove of incredible, life saving, millionaire making, secret formulas to success and happiness.

I am thrilled and honored that you have chosen me to impart all that wonderful knowledge.

But unfortunately, I am in the middle of attracting chicks, becoming happier, thinner, more popular, making my penis larger, my ass smaller, my income double, giving my inner child the ass whooping it so richly deserves and oh yeah, coming out of the closet. The NFL awaits.

I have sent all my money to a pastor in Oklahoma and he assures me that as soon as the check clears, I will be saved. (Approximately Monday 2:00pm EST, hopefully, just in time for your webinar.)

Everyone has just been so helpful. My life has changed in so many ways. I haven’t even thought of suicide in at least the last ten minutes.

P.S. You’re sure I can write all this stuff off?

My best,

Self-Helplessly Hoping

Spiral Marketing: If your primary care physician writes you a prescription for xanax or alprazolam, congratulations, you have just become part of their patient retention program. You aren’t going anywhere for at least 3-5 years. (Don’t ask!)

Ha! I told you I go for the first thing that pops into my head in the morning. Yeah, I know, the eighties, headbands and lousy songs, but that’s what I get for having cottage cheese, black beans and hard boiled eggs just before bed. Has anyone invented brain enemas yet?

While pacing miserably for my coffee it started to make sense. We put so much of our time and energy into someone else’s vision, that we put our creative persona on hold and stifle our passion in frustration. I had a chat with an old friend of mine the other day, he just got hired after a long period of inactivity. When you’re in your fifties that’s a dangerous place to be coming from. “It’s OK, I guess,” was his response after I inquired how he liked his new job. We’ve had this conversation before. Many times.

I know I keep prattling on about how this economy will separate the wheat from the chaff, the clever from the clueless, and the driven from the drones, but I keep hearing these stories first hand. There’s only a false sense of security. My friends with long commutes and tiny cubicles grip their steering wheels in the morning sun and are grateful for at least somewhere to go.

My take on all this is, start packing now. I hear people say, “I gave them the best years of my life.” No you didn’t, you took a paycheck and put a lid on it. I don’t want to hear that stuff anymore. Get over it. You should have been stockpiling every opportunity, every job function and experience you had in the process of building You Incorporated. You took, you didn’t give.

Now, the existential dilemma: who are you without your job? Yeah, get naked and think about it. Ponder your very existence, pull yourself together and face the new reality. If you must take a job in the future, go in there with a Hoover and make it a learning opportunity. Volunteer for anything that will grow you as a commodity in this vanishing work environment.

If you let someone call all the shots and you find yourself angry and bitter, just remember, all this time you were workin’ for the weak end.

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Please, as in to subjugate yourself. My parents are gone, school’s out forever and I left the corporate world more than six years ago. It takes a while to right the ship after pulling the cord on the second chute. I had a mini lesson in re-birth when I went into sales and moved to another state years ago. A total shock to my system. My auto pilot got shut off.

Like being institutionalized, entrepreneurial freedom feels a bit wobbly at first but once you get going there’s no looking back. Inside the chalk lines you knew the landscape and how the game was played. Show up, work the ropes, add a little political panache, size up your immediate boss with his boss in the corner of your eye (cause you never know) and proceed accordingly. You know, work the system. Until the next re-org.

I always thrived in the corporate environment because the rules were clear and you did what you were told for the most part. But curiously, not much more. If you did something out of the book that they couldn’t gauge, you saw first hand how inflexible the system was. As I did. The price you pay for a safe harbor. I was sometimes handed a check and/or a plaque in a restaurant, bar or hotel room. Not at a sales meeting or home office. I mean, the out of the mainstream stuff I did always got out, but it was awkward to say the least.

Here’s what I would have posted on my bathroom mirror.

Hi, my name is Bob and I am a people pleaser. Once you come into my sights there is nowhere you can run. I will exploit your primary tic right down to your mating habits if I can and make you wonder how you ever lived without me. I will daze and confuse you and put my carriage before your horse every time. Every time.The system is made for me, not for you. My needs are less than yours. I require less food, less sleep and hate vacations. On weekends when you are recuperating, I am planning for Monday. To me, balance is a protein bar. Game on.

Then you wake up one day and realize the way you measured success in your life has changed drastically. There’s nobody left to run with. Your world has flipped and the reason you either jump out of bed or drag your sorry ass to the bathroom in the morning is on you. It’s not promotions or bonuses anymore, it’s survival and self satisfaction.

Abject fear slowly turns to exhilaration. Roll credit (1), cue bouncy music and fade.

Welcome to the jungle.

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I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again. You cannot shoot a corporate video on your iPhone and not look like a doofus and lose a shitload of credibility. I never told anybody to do it, not a single time—never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people.

To be seen, stand up. To be heard, speak up. To be appreciated, shut up!  You don’t blog just to shoot your trap off, you do it to help people and build trust. I read an article the other day from one of the “experts” in social media who make their living by getting you to subscribe to their newsletters and blogs. Blogging is definitely a cottage industry these days and a lot of them have numbered, bulleted, stepwise  approaches to success, money, motivation, sales, marketing and having it all. Hmmm, sounds like Hay House.

One of the things that caught my eye and made me think, was the subject of blog content and what to do when you run out of ideas. Now, it’s probably just me, but I’m thinking if you’re an expert in your field, you are hot on your subject and you have a world of experience, (as claimed) you would never have that problem. I mean, we ain’t writing novels here.

There are some very smart people out there with lots of information to share but a lot of them are trying to monetize it. And that’s a problem. As I see it, it starts when you get desperate and over generalize your communications by offering “How My Dog Taught Me To Negotiate.” Then you’re sliding down that greasy pole in my book.

I get something every Monday morning from an angel investor who ran out of ammo a year ago. He has committed to that schedule so dammit that’s what we’ll get. His intellectual groping can be painful to watch. He wanders way off course to grab your interest. He’ll even  discuss psychiatry, astrology and relationships. Thank God, now I can fire my therapist.

So what comes first the subject or the blog? Much like the chicken and egg conundrum, I’m even starting to wonder what Seth Godin is talking about. He hits my inbox for the first time at 6:00 am every day no matter what. If he doesn’t hit his point in the first line, he’s gone. Here’s an example: “While reading this sentence, hum your favorite pop tune while writing down the first 15 prime numbers, in order.” Cognitive load, indeed. I love the guy but he has to respect my limits.

I have blog drafts lined up out the wazoo. I just cannot shut the hell up about what I do. If I don’t have anything to say, I clamp it. I also stay out of anything that can be covered by Wayne Dyer,  Dr. Ruth or Howard Stern. I’m not going to tell you how to do anything but create great content by considering all the approaches and putting a lot of thought into it. Period. Oh yeah, and I love to bitch about on-line clutter.

There are so many facets to what I do I can go on ad nauseam. Forever! (Like now) When I put a blog post together there is no schedule. I can put out three in one day or none for a week. I write as the spirit moves me. I am totally issue driven. I am usually breathing heavy, mumbling, scribbling notes and typing at the same time. I take my blood pressure immediately after I hit the update button. Then I spend the rest of the day deleting and republishing due to a heavy mix of remorse and paranoia.

So, I really don’t get that content stuff. I say write what you feel and feel what you write. Right? As I said, to be seen…

P.S.

Don’t push, you’ll hurt yourself.

The end of the innocence is the point at which ideals are shattered. Where reality and cynicism set in. The beliefs we held when we were younger have been changed if not replaced. By now, we know that just having a web site or a twitter account is not going to cut it. You can’t have your AA write your blog anymore. You can’t push out benign, boring, boilerplate press releases. By now, we should all know what to expect from a market economy that is either automated or heading to Asia. We all know what “shovel ready” really means. I’m still meeting with executives who are dazed and confused at why their on-line strategy is not working. Reality.

As sales forces dwindle, companies are struggling with “touch and feel” as they expand their on-line presence. This is where the marketer falls short when attempting to build brand loyalty. Just because you have become mostly automated, it doesn’t mean you have to make your audience feel like a digit. If the inexorable digital reality must happen, then there is a way to do it but it takes organizational effort. The auto pilot approach is a loser and CYA no longer applies. Social media needs to get more social.

This is a top down all inclusive effort where everyone is on the same page to reach an audience with varying needs and tailor the conversation accordingly. This takes attention to detail and a very watchful eye. That means the sales force that you have left must be in the loop and harvesting permission based e-mail addresses and relevant information. They must know how to ask and handle objections to a possibly irritating practice. They should be able to explain the benefits of having a non-abusive conversation that would include information and the latest news pertaining to that industry. It takes a reallocation of resources and a combined effort. No easy task in the beginning.

Sales and marketing must be one. In Dupont, we called it “smarketing.” It’s crucial because the potential for on-line abuse is very high. You are interrupting someone and it better be good. Messaging should be anticipated, relevant and personal. You can’t claim innocence when you are willfully invading someone’s head space.

Most executives agree with all of the above, but when it comes to implementation they fall short. It becomes a structural focus problem. It just seems too complicated to mimic the reach and frequency that used to be achieved with a warm body. It’s all good until we get to the jump off point and we have to commit.

The wide eyed coolness factor of social media is cold reality and as they say, content is king and distribution is queen. Social media today is not the band-aid it’s being touted as. There needs to be even more finesse and tact employed when replacing the up close and personal. Social media is still more sizzle than steak and misfires are rampant. When on-line communication is your only way in, you better know who you’re talking to and what they’re interested in then grow and nurture that relationship.

As James Altucher wrote, Communication is the thread that weaves humans into humanity. It’s still the same old story isn’t it?

O.K, let’s clear this up. It’s 2014 and I’m still having animated discussions with marketing and corporate communications professionals about fair use with regard to copyrighted music. There is no “internal use” anymore. Once it gets into your air space it’s on you.

If you use professionally recorded music to score a video or entertain participants at a sales meeting you are putting yourself in jeopardy. The only exception is “buy out” or “royalty free” music that is sold just for that purpose and whose quality and variety has grown over the years. Very well done in my opinion.

If you want to stall your project or event for an eternity, try licensing a popular tune from a successful recording artist.Your attorney will be thrilled as he or she will finally be able to pay off their kid’s student loans. You know what billable hours are, don’t you?

And it’s not just you, I am also culpable because I’m supposed to know better. As a musician myself, I had to pay union dues to BMI and ASCAP to be able to perform covers of other artists over the years. This is serious business.

My job is to make you look your best and give you the best professional advice from my years of experience in content development.

Now, you might have been fortunate over the years to get away with this sort of thing but as you know, nothing is private anymore. More importantly, nothing is free.

Today, you might have to ask yourself “Do I feel lucky?” These huge entities are just dying to make an example of someone and the bigger the better. Ignorance is bliss but it’s no excuse and it won’t save you from litigation. And don’t think your management will say “It’s OK, you didn’t know.” It’s like going off label when the package insert clearly states otherwise. Shame on you!

The takeaway: It is not appropriate to appropriate someone’s art for your own use and entertainment. This has been going on for years and will most likely continue unabated, but there will always be the chance that you will be caught in the net and made an example of.

If you have any questions or have a specific concern, please feel free to reach out to me at bo*@**************ue.com.

It’s time to turn the beat around.

We’re all in the ring these days. Life can be twelve rounds of brutal punishment if you aren’t trained, conditioned and psychologically ready for the rigors of combat in this economy. To the audience you may appear to be out there battling all alone, but a boxer is nothing without his corner man. You may even be so dazed as to think you’re winning when you are actually losing. That’s why the importance of a corner man or champion cannot be underestimated.

Though a match may look like a couple of muscular brawlers having at each other, the “sweet science” is built on a strategy designed to find their opponent’s weaknesses and “get inside” to overcome barriers and win based on points in a match lasting twelve rounds or more. Knockouts are a rare occurrence. The left jab or interaction is used to set up a scenario where the right hand claims victory. (With apologies to southpaws.)

So who’s your corner man? Who is guiding you through the maze of obstacles that you need to work your way through in order to land the knockout punch? Who is giving you the big picture? Straight, and to the point? Who is giving you guidance regarding political or financial situations that could send you sprawling?

When we get in the ring, whether it’s to pitch an offer, land a contract, or get to the right person, you need a clearly defined target. You need to study the tapes and learn all about the opponent, his past fights and weaknesses and be prepared for the encounter. You need someone who knows the ropes and gives you the straight poop in the final rounds.

Developing a champion is critical in every match where you need to get inside and get your message out to land that right cross and close the deal.

So, who’s in your corner?

Ding!

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I’ve been muscled out of many a boardroom presenting this strategy. It is considered back assward by many “brand forward” thinkers. The fact of the matter is your customers have varying degrees of challenges, motivations and desires and you might not be on the top of their list. OK, digest that and come back to me. By knowing that and addressing the issues your customers are facing in your industry and by being a helpful expert, you will be going a long way toward a long term, durable relationship. Put your ear to the ground, anticipate issues and provide solutions. Step up!

Yes, step up and provide the world with your savvy and your generosity. That’s right generosity. Be the good citizen. The one that everyone talks about. The one that sets the rules of engagement for your industry. We only do business with people we trust. Once we get over ourselves and leave the metrics aside, we can start forging the types of bonds that will endure whatever challenges may present themselves. When you put information first and your company second you will have the brand awareness you seek. Not by fire hosing your audience with “hit ’em ten times” takeaway messaging.

If you are who you think you are, then communicate with your audience in a way that is personal, familiar and interesting. Put the brand forward approach aside and provide the leadership that is required to be successful in today’s market.

Do you have the solutions that your customers need? Are you the leader in your industry? Then act like it!

If you’ve made it this far down the page and think you can endure more of this nonsense, click the subscribe button and get free delivery. You can also leave a comment with suggestions  on where I can get professional help. Thanks. E.R.