Why At-home 3D is a Long Way Off – If It Hits At All

I’m usually one to get on the bandwagon, and yes, I loved Avatar in 3D. From IMAX to regular theaters to…at home is the natural next step in the progression. ESPN announced earlier this month that it would launch a 3D network in the coming year. Disney’s on board. Sony’s on board. LG is launching a new line of 3D televisions in 2010. With names like that, do consumers really have any choice? Keeping in line with my identification as a bandwagoner, I would not-so-boldy predict that just as home television viewing transitioned to HD over the past few years, 3D networks will be the next in line, and in 5 short years, we won’t be viewing anything not in 3D.

Not this time.

I see the pull and the “coolness” factor is absolutely present. For advertisers, what an opportunity to create a much more engaging experience for our target audiences. We’re not extending outside the sense of sight, but we’re getting a lot closer to touch. This is significant. But I believe we’re going to need to find another way to do it.

4 Reasons why at-home 3D viewing is a long way off:

1. Peripheral distraction. 3D experiences in IMAX and even ordinary movie theaters work because it immerses the viewer in the experience. This is fairly obvious but worth noting. If you’ve got a 7-footer sitting in the seat right in front of you, it can ruin the entire experience. If the screen was half the size and your peripheral vision allowed you to see a significant amount on either side of the screen, the experience is compromised. Why do you think IMAX screens are so stinkin’ huge? Drop a 42-50″ screen on a wall, 10-20′ from the viewer and you’ve got all kinds of problems. Is it even worth trying to provide a 3D experience with all of the distraction your peripheral vision will catch? For sports viewing, movies, Discovery channel, whatever, this would actually seem a bit corny.

2. Viewing Angles. Again, the result of most of us not having a 20′ projection media room in our homes means that you’ll have to position yourself directly in front of your television to avoid distorting the experience. Remember early flatscreen technology that prevented viewership from a 45 degree angle? Well, we fixed that, but what are we going to do if 3D is the next big thing?

3. Glasses. Call this a gut instinct, but I don’t think people will want to have to wear glasses at home to watch tv. Will we just have a set of glasses for everyone in the household right next to the remotes? No more multi-tasking. Unless you want to fold laundry and work on your work laptop with vision distorting glasses, you’re either watching tv and nothing else, or you’re not watching at all. This is actually a step backwards.

4. Money. Along with any other tech advancement, the pricing will start high and decrease. The current economy certainly isn’t very conducive to a new expensive technology, but on top of that, who wants to buy a special cable box, a new tv, glasses and upgraded cable? Not this guy.

I get it. This is (relatively) new technology with a lot of momentum and chatter. I’d love to jump on the bandwagon, but a combination of rational thought and personal intuition seem to stack the cards in the other direction. But this is much more fun as a two-way conversation than a list. Thoughts?

I Invented A Flying Coffee-Maker. Now What?

I’m all hooked up and ready to go on Google Wave. I downloaded Sidewiki. I saw the iPhone spot and downloaded Bump. It’s ego-boosting to be out on the edge with all of my new toys that my clients and colleagues are just starting to hear about and hopefully hearing from me.

And if I want to get even closer to the edge, I’m going to start investing heavy amounts of time and energy to developing my own idea. Wouldn’t it be awesome if I could use my webcam to not only display my unshaven face in real-time but also some crazy 3d animation on top of it? Cool, no doubt.

I like cool. I’d say the majority of us do. But what now?

I don’t have to tell you this, but more than ever, we have the ability to reach the masses with our messages, stories and our ideas. We have a brand new sandbox and close to an even playing field with the Apples and Googles to innovate and change the world (see crowdsourcing, app stores, social media). More of us than ever are dedicating our lives to inventing and building a flying coffee maker. And more of us than ever are finding ourselves pridefully approaching the edge by purchasing our flying coffee makers and showing them off to our friends. There are thousands, probably millions, of flying coffee makers already on the market and probably millions more to come.

Remember how much you used to make fun of the useless products in the AirMall magazine? They were intriguing and oftentimes left you amazed that we (humans) even had that capability now…but your rational brain quickly turned on and recognized the lack of benefit. Ever wonder what happened to Sharper Image? They briefly sustained their brand on the “ooooh”s and “ahhhh”s but weren’t selling anything. How many times did you swing in the store as you were strolling through the mall just to try out the new massage chair and then walk right out?

The new sandbox is starting to get crowded, and the reality is, we’re right in the middle of an AirMall magazine or Sharper Image store in the mall without even realizing it. The curve is going to start trending downward once we realize that Sidewiki and Wave are never going to catch on. They’re cool. They’re not useful. I’m no prophet, but my gut tells me AR falls squarely into this same category.

Here’s the application:
Many of us have been spending far too much time trying to develop the next big thing and not nearly enough time optimizing the useful tools we already have. Now, I don’t want true innovators to go anywhere. Keep doing what you’re doing. But some of us are pioneers and some of us are settlers. We need both. Right now, far too many settlers think they’re pioneers. If you’re a settler, that’s a GOOD thing. Leave the flying coffee maker in your brain. Pick up the useful tools that the great innovators/pioneers of our generation and previous generations have developed and figure out how to best optimize them to tell your brand’s or your client’s story.

It’s quite possible, and I would even say probable, that the great innovation that changed the world was e-mail – or an automatic coffee-maker. Save this post if I’m wrong, but I think Google Wave is just an attempt to make it fly.

Are You Laughing Enough?

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and after a much longer commute than usual this morning, cliche as it is, being thankful for the opportunity to be in this business is top of mind. I’m not going to suggest that we metaphorically go around the dinner table and list what we’re thankful for. I am going to suggest that we act grateful for being in this business year around – not just for yourself, but for your clients.

Like any other profession, this can become just a job. We get used to the day-to-day and templatize work that should never be templatized. Our designs all start to look the same and our client interactions are identical even though our clients’ personalities are drastically different. We are in a dynamic business that changes every day. We can’t templatize our approach to a client or campaign because we should approach each with fresh eyes and ears. It’s our job to dream. Sure, we bob and weave, avoiding realities that we have to take into account along with everyone else (taxes, staying profitable, legal documentation), but our job is to dream, and our success is based on how well we can do it. That’s an awesome thing.

So here’s the application if you’re not feeling too idealistic. Most of our clients went to school to study the same thing we did. They got into marketing because they liked to use that right side of their brains, solve problems and yes, dream a little bit. Are you doing a good enough job of letting them? If you’ve ever worked clientside, the aforementioned “reality” is much more prevalent than for those of us on the agency side. Marketing plans, budget planning and oftentimes having to sell the need for marketing altogether to a heavily left-brained manager. Working with you should be the most fun part of their job. They should look forward to meetings with you. Why wouldn’t they? They’re getting to problem solve, dream and work with people that relatively think like they do.

Laugh together.

Take the skill you already have of dissecting a target audience and apply it to your own audience. Our clients want to enjoy working with us…and there’s no reason they shouldn’t. We may get to the point where agency life is just second nature to us and take it for granted, but our clients dreamed of doing exactly what you’re doing when they were sitting in a marketing classroom.

Be grateful that you have the intangibles, skills and determination to succeed in this business. Don’t forget to have fun. Make sure your clients are having just as much fun as we are.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Agency New Biz: Just Be Yourselves

Just be yourselves. William Wallace couldn’t have given us more powerful words to apply to our new business efforts when close rates are just scary low. I read the books and the blog posts offering bulleted and numbered lists of tactics that are “guaranteed” to increase your new business. Perhaps that’s all I’m doing as well, but this is just so important, and it isn’t something that only works for individuals with a certain skillset (exerting unprecedented confidence and differentiating your agency through a captivating pitch isn’t within every salesperson’s comfort zone).

Here’s something we can all do. Be yourself. Be genuine. Don’t come into a meeting with an outlined presentation. In an age when companies want to work with people (not corporations) more than ever, it’s your job to gain their trust. Condemn me for hating on the “great facilitator”, but I’d stay the heck away from Powerpoint. Clicking through a presentation takes the attention off of the individual and puts it on a screen, probably displaying a beautiful arrangement of your capabilities. It may be like taking away your security blanket, but if you understand that your job is to make someone trust you in 30 minutes to an hour, you want the focus to be on you.

Be honest about what you don’t do well. Seriously. Make a point to tell your prospective client that you don’t do something well. Even if you’re a full-service agency, you’re not everything to everyone. If you claim to be, grab the whiteboard and rethink it.

Here comes the cliche part. I even worked it out with some alliteration to make it easier to remember.

Connection
Contribution
Candor

Your mission: establish trust in 30 min to 1 hour. Establish a connection – if you’re a good salesperson, you understand how to read a room. Find something to talk about that has nothing to do with the task at hand. Communicate your contribution – prospective clients may give you their business if they’re impressed with your capabilities; I’d bet you’re even more likely to get their business if you can communicate how working with your agency would directly benefit them. Show candor – be honest and genuine. This is where your “what we don’t do” comes in. Have you ever had a waiter tell you that something wasn’t very good on the menu? When they tell you that something is good, I’ll bet you take it a little more seriously.

This isn’t applicable to every scenario, but I think it is applicable to the majority. There are also a number of ways to establish trust in your agency before the big meeting. I’ll discuss this in a later post (hint: humanize your brand).

Social Media: My Job Just Got A Lot More Complicated (IS Conference ’09)

Preface: I believe in social media. I do not believe it is a fad – I think it will change the way marketers and advertisers think, permanently. This is a summary of my presentation at Houston’s Interactive Strategies Conference (IS Conference ’09).

This video began circulating around our office a couple of weeks ago. If you haven’t seen it, my guess is, you’ve seen one like it.



Excited? I was the first time I saw it.

Now I realize that the credibility of this video has essentially been torn apart over the past couple of weeks, but that isn’t the point of this post. This video is merely representative for my purposes. The conclusion that the creator of this video wants us to get to (a bit forcefully and deceptively) is that we’ve found the next golden egg in our business. Pour your investment into social media and watch your return – low cost, high visibility (incredibly high visibility according to videos like this) – how could you go wrong? Get your Facebook fan page, Twitter account, YouTube channel and LinkedIn profile set up – then sit back and revel in the results. After all, there are hundreds of millions of people accessing these channels right? The message we’re hearing is that it’s just that simple. Is it that simple?

I could go on for pages on this, so I’ll compress it to 2 central arguments and spare you my illustrations (if you’re interested in more detail and missed the conference, dm me on twitter or e-mail me and I’ll be happy to expand):

1. I hate to pull personal experience into this, but I’m going to have to (and I only do so with the confidence that most of the readers of this post can relate). My grandmother refuses to use e-mail. Refuses. She won’t even own a computer. She moved from Houston to Austin a few years ago and we got her a computer so we could keep in touch more often. She sold it within a week. She doesn’t want to have to learn something new. “Just call me if you want to talk,” she’d say.

My dad (babyboomer) not only doesn’t understand Twitter or Facebook, he mocks them. “Why would I want to know what you’re doing all day? That’s stupid”, he’d say. Now I realize that the fastest growing age demographic for Facebook is 55-65 – this is significant, no doubt. But if you want to talk to my grandmother or my dad, you better think about some different channels. Know anyone like this?

2. We all love stats. Having a big chart to back up our argument gives us a little warm and fuzzy. The video above is loaded with them. Let’s assume, for the time being, that the stats are accurate. Here’s the problem: they’re being used manipulatively. If they reinforce what we want to hear, we won’t dig a little deeper to find the usable data behind these stats.

A couple of examples:

MySpace announced 3 years ago that they surpassed 100 million user accounts. That’s a staggering statistic. I have four. I also haven’t accessed any of those accounts in at least 2 years.

Twitter has 30 million+ accounts (I don’t know the exact number, but it’s a lot). If we took the time to not accept this stat at face value, we’d see that 80% of those accounts have tweeted less than 5 times. We’d also see that 75% of tweets come from 5% of Twitter users. There are a lot of people you can reach using Twitter, but do yourself (or your clients) the favor of making sure the stat is usable before adding it to your pitch or presentation.

One of the only usable stats I saw in this video was that 78% of surveyed consumers trust recommendations from online peers while a mere 14% trust ads. Whoa, now we’re onto something! But wait. Razorfish just released their Social Influence Marketing Report (“social influence” marketing is their non-conformist terminology for social media), in which they concluded that “consumers are more likely to trust television ads than online friends when making purchasing decisions.” Scratching my head. I’m not discrediting research or the importance of it – I’m merely noting how far people will go to get us to see their point of view. I’d like to see the profiles of the users surveyed for the video above.

Here’s my conclusion: social media is no golden egg. It doesn’t make our jobs easier – in fact, it makes them far more difficult. When we respond to the pressures of, “where’s our facebook fan page?” or “throw up a Twitter account; it’ll take 5 minutes!”, we’re buying into this manipulative crap (forgive my cynicism – that’s usually not my style). When we build our strategies around social media or reach for the channels before deciding what we’re using them for, we’re metaphorically pulling tools out of the toolbelt before we’ve decided what we’re building and who we’re building it for.

The toolbelt is growing with far more dynamic tools than we’ve ever seen before. This requires us to be creative, smart and thorough. We haven’t found the golden egg (or “magic beans” as Seth Godin refers to it) of this generation. It’s quite the opposite, in fact. We now have more tools…incredible tools that will change our thinking forever. But it shouldn’t change our high-level thinking. Most would agree that social media doesn’t reach everyone. It doesn’t reach a lot of consumers. Therefore, we can’t abandon the fundamentals. (1) Identify your target audience, (2) develop your strategy and messaging and (3) start pulling tools from the tool belt that make the most sense. We can’t help but strategize in light of these new tools – but we can’t strategize around them.

So, is it that simple? Absolutely not. Things just got a lot more complicated.

I’m Not Ready for the Big Idea to Die

Just Do It. That was a Big Idea. It was simple and it stuck. I won’t begin to digest why this idea became a game-changer for one of the most recognizable brands in recent memory. But the question has recently surfaced, does the Big Idea still have impact as it did 20 years ago?

Picture this: Just Do It is written on an ad agency whiteboard in 2009—where’s the next place we go? Okay, nice tag line – where’s our Facebook and Twitter strategy? My guess is that most of us would immediately begin to reach for the media tool belt that has grown exponentially since the days this Big Idea changed the ad world. We divide the Big Idea into a series of little ideas. That may be the right move for the ad world we now live in. Mad Men’s big concept, big pitch, big win may be nothing more than a glorified memory in our business.

I’ve enjoyed reading and digesting the thoughts of brilliant minds in our industry on the subject. Mitch Joel and Edward Boches are two that sparked my thinking this past week. I can’t compete with the experience and wisdom these guys have to offer, and their arguments are certainly sound.

However, I’m not ready for the Big Idea to die.

I’ve spent the last few days in the Colorado Rocky Mountains (and haven’t consumed a single Coors Light). This is my favorite place on earth, as mentioned in my bio. I grew up, and still live, in Texas, but the mountains of Colorado are always in my dreams and serve as a constant source of inspiration for me. WARNING: I’m about to get a little vulnerable and expose some of my quirks – no judging, you have quirks of your own. Below are a few more things that I wish were a part of my everyday life. If you were to ask me, what inspires you?, when are you the most relaxed?, what do you look forward to?, my list would look something like this:

I love the mountains.

I love cold weather – really cold weather that depresses most people.

I love coffee shops with the A/C turned way up so I can at least pretend it’s cold outside (I’m sitting in one right now)

I love snow dogs – Alaskan Malamutes are the winners

I love coffee – not just the caffeine or the taste…I pour my coffee into an insulated tumbler each morning so it lasts upwards of two hours. It’s relaxing for me.

I love fireplaces

I love cold weather clothes – even though I have about 4 weeks of Texas “winter”, my closet is filled with jackets and sweaters as though I’m anxiously waiting for global cooling

I’m not making this up. I individually love all of these little things and look forward to any exposure I get to them. I’m in the mountains, in a coffee shop, drinking coffee, but it’s 90 degrees outside—I’ll take the compromise. I get a little excited every time I see an Alaskan Malamute or Husky up here. I wouldn’t even think about buying a house without a fireplace.

Notice that there is no hint of white beaches, blue water or piña colada’s on this list. Is it pure coincidence that I love all of these individual things that seem so related, or is there more to it? I would argue that I fell in love with a single culture, not a random list. The list I detailed above probably describes the life of more than one of the locals sitting around me in this ski town coffee shop. It’s not unrealistic or idealistic. It’s a culture that I wish I could be a part of. Since I’m not, I grapple for any of the individual items on that list and consider it a win.

I can’t let go of the Big Idea. As marketers, I believe that we can throw snow dogs, coffee shops and cold weather in front of our audiences, and we’ll probably entice them a little bit. These little ideas can certainly be successful, but if we refuse to let go of the whole ski-town culture—the Big Idea—we can not only entice them but invite them into something much bigger. I’m not going to make a major commitment for a fireplace, but you better believe I’ll change my behavior if you manage to make me part of the entire culture.

Nike could roll out a series of little ideas to get me to buy a pair of running shoes. Just Do It, on the other hand, doesn’t just make me want to buy a pair of running shoes—it makes me want to become an athlete. Then I’ll buy running shoes, clothes and Nike+ for the rest of my life. Even in 2009.

Creatives Are Lazy and Irresponsible…?

Forgive my provocation. Assuming you’re, in some way, affiliated with the advertising business, my assumption is you had one of two responses to this post title: (1) “tell me where this guy lives” or (2) “finally! someone understands what I go through everyday!”

This is a larger issue that I’m narrowing down to a specific industry, but the story goes like this. Creatives and Account Services (management types) typically don’t get along. It’s just about the same thing every time you hear it. Creative 1 thinks AE 1 is a babysitter and an e-mail pusher. AE 1 can’t effectively lead the project because Creative 1 assumes he or she has no skill or qualification to offer. AE 1 thinks Creative 1 is irresponsible, lazy and selfish. AE 1 can’t believe that Creative 1 doesn’t respond to e-mails or shows up late for meetings. “It’s just a matter of being responsible”, he or she says. If you’ve never heard it, you will.

First off, let me say that there are AEs who aren’t capable of doing anything other that creating a schedule and tracking a budget. There are also creatives who need to learn how to be responsive. But this isn’t the source of the rift.

The nature of a creative’s work is drastically different from an AE’s, and this has to be understood. A creative creates something out of nothing (well, almost nothing). This requires an elimination of distraction and a solid chunk of time within which to work. Management types don’t understand this because they’re used to hopping from meeting to meeting, taking calls all day and thriving on the lifeblood we call e-mail. Management types typically end up running the place, so creatives tend to draw the short straw – being forced to work the same way the AEs and management types do.

Like it or not, there’s usually a distinct difference in how these two groups become successful, which leads to different working habits. An AE or management type usually judges success based on how much got done (assuming it was done well). We pack our calendars with meetings and think we’re doing an extra good job if we open our computers late at night just to answer a few more e-mails. We meet, we get nervous with tight deadlines, we develop client relationships…it’s what we do. On the other hand, a creative’s success is determined by the brilliance and originality of the idea and the quality of the execution. Get over it AEs and managers: playing ping pong, guitar or video games is not only valuable but essential in the world of a creative. Why? It helps to free up the brain so there’s enough room for the brilliant and original idea. Allow them the freedom and time to research, mull over a problem and, yes, play. These are the working habits of someone who’s success is predominantly judged by the idea.

If you’ve got an Art Director who loves e-mail and meetings and can turn the switch on in a matter of minutes, give them a huge raise and don’t let go. This is certainly an exception. Now, what do we do with this?

Remind yourself the next time you get upset with someone for these reasons that they’re just not wired the same way you are. One is not better than the other – they’re both necessary for an agency to run effectively.

Schedule a specific block of time during the day (preferably the beginning or end of the day) when creatives can be scheduled for meetings. Steal 10am to 11am and, unless you’re a production shop, their entire morning is shot.

Hire people that fit within the culture you want to create or maintain. If you’re running a highly conceptual shop, quit hiring project managers whose biggest contribution is an undying love for spreadsheets and diagrams. And working under the assumption that you want to deliver brilliant work in a reasonable timeframe, don’t hire a creative that refuses to buy an alarm clock and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.

I’m only touching the surface here, but it all starts with a concerted effort to learn what makes someone else tick – it’s probably different for them than it is for you. In our business, we lose days of productivity because we don’t care to admit this fact, much less understand it.

Viral for the Sake of Viral

I read this morning about the popularity of the Megawoosh Waterslide video and it’s subsequent unveiling of illegitimacy - excuse my attempt at sounding like a dictionary, feels like a day for big words. Summary: the video’s as fake as one would suspect after viewing, and guess who’s behind it…MICROSOFT?



Forget the fact that large companies are trying their hand at viral video. With the amount of views Charlie Bit My Finger has garnered, why would you not jump on this train of low cost, high visibility? Plenty of people are talking about this, but the question I want to ask is, how has this helped Microsoft? How has it helped MRM WW in Germany – the organization behind the video?

First point (and one that is often argued by my friend Dominic Pannone): No agency is any more equipped to create a video that goes viral than my youngest brother and his friends with a crappy video camera. If you hear an agency claim “expertise” in viral or even the ability to make a video go viral, run the other direction. Videos can certainly be created with the intention of generating buzz on the web and hopefully being shared on a grand scale, but when agencies claim to be able to do this themselves, there’s an issue. This video is fake. Why would anyone want to watch it now? For it’s artistic value? If we suit up Knoxville and Steve-O in football pads and have them film Jackass 17, no one is going to go watch it. Why?

It lacks credibility and genuine origination.

Sure, we’re talking about it now, but we won’t be for long. Examples like this show me how little we still know about social media and content sharing and what causes (borrowing Gladwell’s language) something to tip. By all means, keep making videos with the hope of them going viral, but keep it real. Deception doesn’t pay off…ever.

Point 2: MRM will benefit from this…Microsoft will not. MRM was following orders and trying to generate a video that would deliver a subtle message of planning and organization that was fresh and people would want to watch and share (not sure if that was a run-on, but it felt like it). Most of us hadn’t heard of them, and we have now. In terms of concept and execution, they nailed it. It just wasn’t real.

Microsoft, on the other hand: nice try. You’re a smart company with brilliant people at the helm, but this one came in under the radar. First of all, had the deception played out as planned, how do you use this to sell MS Office? I’m sure you wanted it linked to you at some point, but this will probably sell more slip ‘n slides than Office suites. Secondly, you tried to deceive your audience. Yes, it was all in the name of fun, but the first time I saw it, my jaw hit the floor – certainly the reaction you hoped for. What now? MS made an attempt at video with the intention of viral spread. They apparently didn’t think it possible to generate this level of buzz truthfully. Chalk it up as a loss.

Creative Wannabe?

I’m a wannabe. Bet you’ve never heard that in anywhere close to a positive connotation, but I look on that self-descriptor fondly. I love the advertising business and participating in this dynamic digital world – I’d like to think I have some fresh thoughts about the business, but the day I look in the mirror and see an expert that’s perfectly content and ready to start the marketing and ad world text book, I’m done. That’s why I’ll always be a wannabe.

I wannabe a creative. I’ve never made a secret of this. I’ve known this about myself since I was 10 years old, but here’s the thing: just because my mind works that way doesn’t mean that’s where I can be most effective in the business. I work with the folks who concept, design and execute every day. They’re good. They’re very good. In fact, had I studied design in school as I often wished I had, I would not want to have to compete with them. Rather, let me work with that talent every day and manage the client relationships and experiences about which I’ve become so passionate. Let me stay focused on leadership, trends and become a student of the ad world. Yeah I’m jealous I can’t do what they can do, but I’m thankful I get to work with them and help sustain a business in marketing and advertising that allows them to do it every day.

I wannabe in Colorado. I’m in Houston, Texas, where the weather is literally damaging to the psyche. Want to go get the newspaper in the morning or check your mail? Better be prepared for a giant sweat stain on the small of your back. I love cold and overcast weather. I love coffee shops. I love the mountains. I love fireplaces. I love cold weather clothes. I even love snow dogs. But here I am in Houston, where the weather is a sacrifice, but the culture is strong. We’re not on Madison Avenue, but the artistic culture continues to grow and local clients are coming away from projects inspired. That’s fun.

I wannabe a professional musician. A perfect song (or one I perceive to be perfect) brings me to tears. Music expands my creative capacity far more than silence. When I listen to it, my thoughts and emotions are at the mercy of the next song. When I write it, I’m ultimately vulnerable but thankful for the ability to communicate in that way. When I play it, my mind is cleared of distraction, and that is a beautiful thing. And bringing it back to my business – my passion knows no bounds when it comes to the combination of music (sound design) and visuals to create an aesthetic and even emotional experience. Tell me this familiar spot has power without the perfect musical support. I want to create the music that manipulates our emotions all the time, but instead I zoom out and allow music to be a component of my focus. I’ve never been able to live zoomed in far enough to do this for a living.

I wannabe better. I love learning. Not necessarily in the academic sense (believe me, I’m glad that’s in the rearview mirror), but I would feel irresponsible for not using the free gift of knowledge and content that this new generation of our business provides. I now have free access to the brightest minds in our industry. While this fact describes a new reality to which we have to adapt for the sake of our clients, it also leaves us with zero excuse to not learn something new every day.

Welcome to my blog, Creative Wannabe. I’m thrilled to join the discussion.