Today we lost a hero, a visionary, an incredible mind.

Steve Jobs has always been an enigma. He changed the way we work (otherwise our entire lives could have been  as disappointing as Lotus Notes). He’s changed the way we connect. He gave us what we needed before we knew we needed it. While he was never known to “crack” what we generally refer to as ’social media,’ he gaves us the means to do it. He was the most incredible strategic and creative mind our generation has ever known.

I’m looking at my social feeds this evening and am completely awestruck at the impact he has had on the creative community. Yes, I used to work at Chiat/Day, the home of Apple advertising and it has an enormous impact on many of my friends lives (and my own)–regardless if we worked on it or not. But it’s bigger than just Chiat. Our advertising world has been shaped by the innovation of Jobs and Apple. We could not do what we do without his technology. We would not be building apps, creating our digital experiences and amazing broadcast spots, playing with Instagram, sharing our lives the way we do without his vision.

He changed the game of advertising — with a little help from his agency of course. He had the guts to take the risk. Buy work that wasn’t conventional (hello, 1984?) The Think Different ad got me into advertising. On my toughest days early in my career, it KEPT me in advertising. It gave me hope that one day, maybe I could help make something that would make me feel the way that did. That’s what good advertising does: grabs you in a way you’d never expect, hugs your heart and makes you want a piece of whatever they “got” at any cost. So here’s to the crazy ones.

Beyond just what he helped create, was the attitude and the swagger that he brought to the world of technology. Before Apple, one could argue that technology was looked down upon many as just another “nerdy pursuit.” Technology was for “them” not “us.” Apple made technology desirable. Who wanted to be a suit PC when you could be the smart-assed Mac?

While the physical manifestation of the “Mac” persona may be true-yes, many of us wear our funky sneakers and tote our iPhones as if they were actually attached to our bodies–what’s beneath the surface is probably even more fundamentally true. We all live to be the pirates. We want to have strong opinions, bold ideas, a don’t f*ck with me attitude and perseverance to survive even the worst moments. We want to be curious and live in a world of wonderment. One where anything and everything is possible…

My favorite part of his Stanford address is this. I’ve read it several times this evening and to be honest, it’s inspiring me in this moment to follow my heart.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

Rest in Peace Mr. Jobs. And thank you.

– Steve Jobs narrating the timelessly incredible Think Different ad:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lame title. Deal. Sorry.

It’s funny, I spend a lot of time talking about how behaviors are what drive the development of new tools/technologies and are core to functionality and usefulness. Behaviors evolve over time and changing interactions, but I’ve always been of the mindset of that direction relative to causal influence. While I don’t believe it is wrong, I started thinking (selfishly) about how these “tools” have changed me and how I interact with the world around me. There are more and more examples of how the tool is shaping behaviors.

Instagram is quite an interesting example of this. Not only do I constantly need to check it (I love peeking into my friends’ lives and seeing what’s beautiful, funny, in their lives) but I realized something today: the days that I don’t have “something’ to instagram lately are typically a little underwhelming and maybe even a little depressing. Lead me to a question (terrifying self discovery): is a day that you don’t have anything to share, one that was worth living? That sounds way more dramatic than I mean it to, but broadly speaking, it reframes the way you can look at your day. Shouldn’t you strive to have a moment in your day (fleeting or not) that fills you with enough joy that you want to share it?

I think that’s a big part of the power and lure of an instagram or even Facebook. Making you think just a little more critically about the life you’re living. When you look back on the collective memories that you’ve shared (or not shared), is there a point in which you can actually see the unhappy breaks? Eras of joy/optimism hope? Maybe this could be a tool for therapy–tracking your visual history to see where things went “wrong” or “right”. I truly believe there’s an incredible intrinsic value to tracking memories and creating tangible “memory buckets”.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue, these personal logs create incredibly rich places and spaces as “marketing” folks to be able to mine for insights into the way people really live. Would be amazing to be able to look through someone’s FB or Instagram feed and juxtapose to the way that they answer questions in a focus group (on their will of course)…there are some things you just can’t “make up”…

Back from vacation is always a hard time…regardless of how exciting life is, it’s never as exciting as being on a fun little escape from the everyday. My little trip over the pond yielded so many points of inspiration, I can barely contain in a post (but hell, I’ll try). First and foremost, I feel so incredibly blessed to have amazing friends (in the industry and outside) that made me feel incredibly at home. I called it my own little “SXSW”, as so many people I admire and interact with on a (near) daily basis live out in jolly old London.

Warning: this post will be a little self-indulgent. I just don’t want to forget what I learned and want to share with those who are interested in similar learning, that’s all. {smile}

The most important thing I walked away with is a renewed sense of curiosity. A common thread of the interactions I had was the perpetual questioning and intense desire to know “but why?” and “what’s next?” There is always more to uncover, and the minute you feel like you’ve answered all your questions, it’s time to turn a new stone. There’s also a bit of a natural unrest — restlessness that I think comes from always wanting to know more and frustration that you don’t actually know everything you want to.

Further from “learning about learning”, I think we all know that in this business there’s a lot of smarts/skill that go into what we do everyday. And there is also a very important part of what we do that is completely intangible. It’s a charm, a charisma, a way of taking clients (and co-workers/friends) on a journey through conversation and being *truly* engaging. We rarely talk about this because it’s so ubiquitous. However, when completely inundated with it, it becomes completely clear that there are some folks that just have “it”. The only way to “get it” as I decipher, is A) god given talent and B) maturing around it.

A lovely lunching with the hilarious, frighteningly smart @malbonster (Tim Malbon to those non-twitter/instagram-ites) reminded me why I love creating things of value for the internets. It’s just not about simply making an ad or a communication…it’s about creating valuable properties that live WITH/FOR people other than just to tell them about something (If you’re curious about this, check out @madebymany blog, which is an incredible source of information/inspiration).

Lucky enough to meet up with a trifecta of a few of the smartest ladies I know (@dddiana, @melex, @PatsMc). As a gal slowly coming up in the ranks in the industry, it’s so inspiring to know such a powerful/dynamic generation of (female) leaders are at the reigns. A sisterhood of strong opinions, strong ideas and good shoes. I’ve never felt so optimistic about the future of our industry as I did after that little dinner. Totally humbled by their ideas and ambition.

Other “work-ish” folks of note are a couple of my biggest inspirations. I met a couple of very smart fellows at the original Planningness conference (also the time I decided I wanted to take the advertising/strategy world by the horns and steer away–pre-Twitter/social media days). Now creative directors, these guys (who are also incredibly humble) are taking the world by storm–focusing on creating things that live and breathe in the world that truly help meet unmet needs (not necessarily just ads), pushing brands forward in a very relevant way, that many of us talk about and admire. Needless to say, doers.  And also incredibly interesting and simply the nicest kind of people.

Net-net: the art of inspiration can be quite simple: make friends with people you really, truly respect and are completely humbled by. And then expect mind = blown.

And some fun (touristy) snaps from the trip below…

Instagram has gotten loads of attention lately. From proliferating numbers of users (3 months to 1MM, 6 weeks to 2MM), to opening up the API to developers to truly start having fun with the social capabilities of the application, there seems to be a bit of an insatiable growth to this (very) simple application. I could wax poetic about all the super awesome spin offs that emerging (from Gramfeed, the desktop app of Instagram to the new ideas spinning off by the day like Stickygram, which turns your instagrams into fridge magnets), instead I wanted to take a quick think on they “why” we love it so…

The proposition is simple: It’s sharing photos. Through a beautiful lens. So what, may be what you’re asking right now. Really? It looks like a 70’s polaroid. Whoop dee dee. But back up and think about the behavior before the dose of haterade. There is an element of art to the instagram. Edward Boches had some great observations on the benefits (and fallacies) of this. However, I still feel like there’s more to it. There’s something incredibly special and personal about sharing images as opposed to just words. It’s different than Twitter, Facebook or anything where you’re crafting a thought/idea/status update. This is *actually* your life (or something quite close to it). While your life isn’t lomo-fied, it most certainly is an aggregation of the activities and places and people you share your life with. Simple, honest truth. And we all know the most successful things in the world are based on these simple truths.

There are lots of people I’ve met through the lens of social media (twitter in particular). Without sounding creepy, this ups the ante a bit more, taking a truthful peek into their lives (and in turn of course, I allow them into mine). It’s a fascinating social dance of sorts and I think that’s incredibly intriguing.

And then getting back to the “art” of it. I have some friends who take absolutely gorgeous pictures (yes, Seth Weisfeld and Dylan Viner I’m looking squarely at you guys…you have amazing sensibility in creating some exquisite images). Personally, I have no false illusion of my “skill” as a photographer. I know my images aren’t balanced, perfectly shot or even mildly attractive in some cases. But they are funny little glimpses into my weird and wonky life. It serves a fun role in my life, it can be a welcome diversion in a crazy day. Something just a bit more beautiful in my mobile stream.

I heard an interesting opinion last week that stuck with me. “I just don’t get twitter. It’s just people using @ signs and re-tweeting other people. It doesn’t mean anything…you can “fake” being cool or smart or whatever you want. So what, you tweet about banksy and that makes you cool?” A bit harsh in my opinion and  needless to say I violently disagree with this, but it did get me thinking.

Lots of posts have sprouted up about why people tweet. Motivations are different for everyone–but I liken it to the different reasons why people talk on the phone or send an SMS. Communication. Connection. Sharing.

Why do I tweet? (I’m only really an authority on me…so figure why not) I really love making things. For as long as I can remember, making things (painting, baking, writing plays, making music, whatever) has been intrinsic to who I am. I love crafting stuff (even just 140 characters). Yes, through exploring your curiosities on twitter, you do start to craft your “self-brand”–but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s inauthentic. Just as you chose that ironic t-shirt this morning to express yourself and your curiosity I tweeted about something I found fascinating. And I gave the person who helped me discover it with a nod and a “RT”.

The twitter world isn’t necessarily about self promotion. It’s about learning and sharing. Generosity is something that gets overlooked a lot in our society as a WHOLE, but I believe there are pockets of twitter land that understand it incredibly well. This article was great in exploring that idea of generosity and “claiming” starting an idea.

And then there are the people I’ve met. It’s been the most rewarding bit of it all. Had a lot of help from friends in building my voice there (a particular inspiration has been @edwardboches – one of the grand poobahs of social media and advertising) and from those friendships have helped grow my knowledge base (as a planner and person), fuel my curiosity, and introduced me to some of the most interesting people I’ve ever met (and a few of my now dearest friends). From across the pond, to across the country, to within the walls of my own agency, it’s an extraordinary tool.

If you’re still a skeptic, I challenge you to try it for a month. Maybe it’s for you, maybe it’s not-but you’ll never know til you try…

Click here to view the embedded video.

We’ve all seen the digital ninja video that’s been circulating the interwebs. Hilarity. It’s funny, cute and contains grain of truth to it (whether we want to admit it or not). The reality is that “digital” as a once mystical entity is slowly becoming democratized–of course, THROUGH technology and social networks. It’s no longer just about throwing out a million buzz words (I recently heard: “developing a micro community of hyper advocates to spread the world throughout social properties”) and guess what– someone’s already taken care of that.

It’s putting some meaning behind those words. And I hate to say it but it rarely comes from a single “strategic idea”–or series of elegantly strewn together words to make a pithy page in a deck. It comes from trial/error, sketching out your dreams of what could be, finding the right people to help (from a technology and creative perspective), making big fat mistakes, scrapping everything and starting again. I’ve been lucky enough to see how great it can be when you work together to get there, but takes a consorted effort by a team of people. And pulling those people together is sometimes a feat. Especially when not everyone is coming from quite the same place, attitudinally.

I’m not a digital ninja or superhero, you’re probably not one either (unless you’re concealing some nun chucks in your iPad case).

There is much to be said about social content right now. And rightfully so. “Social media” is huge right? Surely you’ve heard its bigger than porn on the interwebs these days… However, I’d love there to be more talk around content that’s inherently social (ah, the strategist plays with semantics and word order. Nasty. Apologies).

There’s a deck I’ve been trying to finish for about 6 months now about social ideas, but I think the problem I’m having “finishing” it is that I don’t have an answer as to how one goes about making it happen. At first I was mad at myself (dammit Thas, why can’t you just articulate this??), finally I’ve reached a place of acceptance. I don’t have an answer, perhaps no one does. It’s like trying to answer the stupid question “how does something ‘go viral’” (vomit). The challenge is how do you create something of social value?

I do believe there are a few things that are truths. One could be that we’re not losing the “storytelling”–rather we’re going to a place where we allow people to become the tellers themselves. That said, I don’t believe it’s purely “go make your own story”–like the crowdsourcing TV ads to the masses–I think it’s about making a story that people want to be a part of. Write themselves into in whatever capacity is most appealing to them. The challenge is now not only “make people listen by being utterly disruptive”, but make people want to become a PART of your brand story. And if somehow you can layer in how your friends/peers are a part of the story as well, all the better.

Carpe Diem Daily, challenges participants to write the narratives of their lives through interesting, consistently thought-inducing questions. I love this campaign. It’s little and quiet, but I adore the idea. I believe it a small and mighty one. And utterly simple.  For the self reflective and slightly overly cerebral types (ahem) it’s fab. But moreover, it’s about seeing others sharing their daily thoughts and stories that enrich the way I see the days events. It’s quite lovely. Love today’s question: if you could sail anywhere, where would you go? <mind drifts off>

Challenge yourself and your brands to include people (authentically) into participating in your story. Not just a comments section on a youtube video of your TV spot. Take it a step further and build them into the story or how it’s told. Or just leap out and do this.

Image found at 20X200. Go out and buy it immediately. http://www.20×200.com/art/2009/05/untitled-lets-get-lost.html

Like many who have seen his TED talk, I’ve been incredibly inspired by Sir Ken Robinson. He’s shone a bright light on a huge problem we face as a nation: our education system and how it’s failing our next generation. We’ve lost creativity in our current systems. Other nations are leaping over us in creative thinking and expression (as this recent Newsweek article describes). States keep cutting and cutting, slashing programs from second languages to art to music (one of the early casualties), in lieu of a focus on learning how to take standardized tests. Huh?

I have the highest respect for teachers. They are the cornerstone of modern society. They are creating the next generation and the amazing teachers out there aren’t nearly compensated for all the work they do. The system has failed them (the good ones). Like too many things today, it’s become robotic and formulaic, which is in turn sucking the creative juices from our kids. Some argue that technology is pushing us there. That’s simply a cop out. As we’ve learned in Cognitive Surplus (Shirky’s awesome book), modern technology has given way to an excess in time and energy–alluding to MORE time for creation. Instead of focusing on how “silly and trite” LOLCats are (which they aren’t…what would we do without our cyber feline friends?), could we encourage our next gen to play with arduinos and learn how to create the next awesome gizmo instead? Be creatively productive?

Personally, I don’t think I could do what I do now without some awesome opportunities in the arts. I still remember my favorite class in elementary school,”Creative Expression”. It was a class of a brave teachers creation–loosely built on the traditional art class (which I also had) but focusing less on skills and more on making stuff you loved. A little crafty, a lot of freedom for a 10 year old. I undoubtedly believe it contributed to my appreciation for the arts now and helped lead me to my home in the creative industry.

We are so “skill centric” today that sometimes we miss the less overt learning that can occur in exploration and discovery. We all have a responsibility to cast a critical eye on our education system (if you have kids or not!) and support a higher order learning. Selfishly, I want the next generation to have ALL of the creative outlets as possible, if for nothing else, my own gain. Who will entertain? Who will innovate the next technology to save lives? Who will design the most amazingly beautiful structures? If the answer is no one, we’re in a whole lot of trouble…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Robinson’s book, The Element is a must-read for all. It’s not about the industry or even communication systems specifically. It advocates diversity in our education system to make a dynamic, innovative and inspired next generation. It also does an amazing job of demonstrating through sound examples of the GREAT stories of fostering creativity early on.

Image via Behance: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Creative-Truths/263281 Shirley-Ann Dick

Surrounded by boxes in mid-relocation– I have to write a few words to support Bud Caddell and his quest to write the book on the changing world of strategy. Bud has a phenomenal blog which I’ve followed for quite some time and admire his thinking tremendously. He decided to start a project and see how the “network” could help guide and shape the writing of a book. Awesome idea. I’m thrilled to say that he’s reached his first goal of $5K, but that’s just the beginning. I’ll get to the point–support him here to contribute whatever you can to his kickstarter project. You won’t be sorry.

So why am I supporting his project?

1)  I truly respect what Bud has been doing for ALL of us. He asks provocative questions. Invites us (the readers) to become involved, then allows us into his world and way of thinking. I loved the Web Video THUNDERDROME from sxsw he did with Mike Arauz (well, the presentation. I was lame and not at sxsw this year…). He’s given a lot of himself and for that I’m truly grateful. I know how much time, passion and heart this job takes, Bud’s doing this to the nth degree. It’s driving me to be better and want more from my own work. He’s “gifted” us for a long while, it’s time to show support.

2) To put a bit of my money where my mouth (and heart) is. This whole social world we live in has REAL, inherit value. There are still naysayers that still refuse to “get” it. This project and hundreds of projects like it, fly in the face of this. Collaborative creation is our future. Embrace it.

3) Camaraderie. This social world we live in has allowed me to connect and chat with amazing people.  Virtually meeting awesome folks (like minded and not-so like minded), chatting about the ways of the world, sharing struggles and victories in our day-to-day, there is a bit of an unspoken bond.

4) Becoming a little part of something I truly believe in to be awesome. And absolutely necessary.

Support him now. Please and thank you.