Archives for March 2013

Is The Passion Descriptor Overdone?

03/13/2013 By Jayme Soulati

French Fries (Photo credit: fritish)

People are throwing around the word passion like it’s salt on French fries. It’s becoming a very popular word to describe spirited energy and excitement about something — whether it’s business, facing the day, or doing PR, for example.

I consider myself a passionate person in a number of ways — I have an incredible passion for blogging; I write with a voice that is WSYWIG — people are surprised to Skype for the first time and see that I am how I write.

I am passionate about public relations. It angers me when my peers get short shrift in our profession because others don’t understand how or what we do.

Having a passion for various aspects of life are also part of the total package. Does that mean people with passion are born with it, or can it be taught? Does passion come with maturity and a few years under the belt? Is it all about experiences others don’t have?

Marketers try to tap the passion about their products when writing copy or with storytelling. I get that…people need to tap inner emotion to bring out the pocketbook and build loyalty and evangelism.

What I hope doesn’t happen, though, is that the word passion becomes boring. People with instinctual passion for their approach to life bring a zeal others strive for.

If passion becomes mundane, then we who have that inner light naturally will need to use another word to describe our zest for life.

What’s your definition of passion? Do you think it can be taught? Is it something innate or does it ripen with time and seasoned expertise? Do you think passion is being thrown around like salt on French fries?

This is one of those blog posts where I’m just thinking and don’t have the answer; maybe you do.

10 Marketing Tips To Make 6 Minutes Of Fame Longer

03/11/2013 By Jayme Soulati

South By Southwest or SXSW is happening right now. I will attend some day; it’s on my list. What happens there? Do companies become famous overnight and do videos of feats go viral? It’s been known to happen.

Have you ever thought about what happens after six minutes of fame?

I was in the audience for the Jenny Show in Chicago once; they asked me a question about being single in the city and I was on TV. It wasn’t for six minutes; more like six seconds…and what happened next? Nothing. It was a big let down after my stint on camera wearing a stupid grin because when you frown on TV you look like a convict.

Remember those streakers who ran nudey through the Sunday football game or the collegiate games? Bet they got more than six minutes of fame; probably a mug shot and criminal record for showing items that should always remain covered.

How To Make 6 Minutes of Fame Live Longer

It seems to me, as an over-the-top consumer of news, that companies are trying really, really hard to earn six minutes of fame. Social media has done that. Everyone is hungry for word-of-mouth marketing to up the ante and boost their brand into the stratosphere.

The Super Bowl comes to mind, especially when there’s equipment (aka clothing) failure. Advertisers who spend millions of dollars are expecting infamy. The Old Spice commercial still engages the sexual energy; yep, definitely more than six minutes of fame. The video I featured here by the guitarist for the Chicago Music Exchange who played 100 riffs on the history of Rock ‘n Roll certainly went viral, but I can’t tell you the guy’s name.

Fame is fleeting, Folks.

What Marketers Can Do For Fame and Fortune Every Day

Instead of worrying about how you’re going to capitalize on a fad, trend or current event, consider the following to be famous every single day, not only for six minutes:

Keep your messages updated; adjust them as your company grows with the times.
Change up the team every now and again; hire a fresh perspective to give new eyeballs on current marketing or public relations. I know just the person.
Try a new social media channel and master it. Just like a master gardener who makes the flowers grow with five green thumbs, you can earn a green thumb and sow the seeds for your company.
Listen. When you hear someone say social listening is a new trend; it’s really not. All that means is someone is tuning in to their community and the social media channels to see what’s trending in their vertical market.
Read. Read the bloggers and media outlets that can teach you; if you find yourself yawning over an article, then move on. There are more than 1 million blogs to peruse; 10 of them should be ripe as learning grounds.
Engage. You have to; there is no excuse for not engaging with your community, prospects, customers, employees, and peers. Please remember, you never know if a reporter is visiting your channels to see if your stream is healthy. When you engage as a company or brand, your community engages and evangelizes with and for you.
Rather than seek six minutes of fame and fortune (which rarely exists), create strategically strong integrated marketing campaigns for the long term. With the right smart marketing team in place, you can brainstorm ideas for 12 months that keep your brand consistently focused and marketed.
Tune in to news events and create a smart campaign that ties in with it. Have you seen the craze called bacon? Every day, someone is talking about bacon and not necessarily eating it. For some zany reason, the Baconators have taken over the social sphere with anything and everything relating to pork strips.
Live, breathe and eat bacon. The Oscar Mayer agency, 360i, did some heavy social listening and determined that bacon was hot stuff; however, no brand had capitalized on the bacon trend. It devised an awesome social-media-infused PR campaign called the Great American Bacon Barter “in which a penniless comedian traveled cross country trading Oscar Mayer’s new Butcher Thick Cut bacon for essential such as food, a night on someone’s couch, or NFL tickets.” Oscar Mayer’s CEO said the campaign was successful because of the “culture of curiosity that’s fueled by using data to drive creativity and commerce.”
Dig in deep to your company culture. Can you define your company culture? I’ve always been fascinated by this…what is the definition of culture in business and how does it play out in marketing? Ask yourself.

The Happy Friday Series: Science of Happiness and Do-Overs

03/08/2013 By Jayme Soulati

happiness1 The concept of happiness has always been something that has fascinated me. So when the opportunity came up to contribute to The Happy Friday Series, I got really happy (true story)! And as always, I wanted to take an unconventional approach. So today I’m going to pull up my suspenders, tie on my favorite bowtie and talk to you about the science of happiness.

Positive Psychology

In a recent TED talk, Shawn Achor presents an interesting thought.

“It’s not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality. If we can change the lens, not only can we change your happiness but we can change every single educational and business outcome at the same time.”

My Interpretation

What I gather from this thought is that happiness is defined by our own interpretations and beliefs. If we can change how we interpret situations and adopt new beliefs, we can essentially become happier.

Achor continues his talk on the science of happiness with a few exercises. When completed every day for 21 days, the following tasks will actually train your brain to scan the world for the positive and ultimately help you become happier.

3 Gratitudes – documenting 3 new gratitudes daily
Journaling – reflecting on your positive experiences
Exercise – training your body that behavior matters
Meditation – allowing yourself to experience your thoughts
Random Acts of Kindness – complete one random act of kindness daily

This fascinates me for many reasons. First, I’m in the middle of my own 21 day experiment and have noticed far more things going my way. People I regularly interact with have commented on my increased positive mood and I seem to be attracting much happier people!

Being a bit of a nerd, I researched these 5 tasks and found something we at Clarity for the Boss like to call the “do-over.”

The Do-Over

Remember when you were a kid and you made a mistake, your parents would often ask you “What could you have done differently?” or “What did you learn from this situation?” That’s exactly what a do-over is.

When you allow your brain to revisit a situation (through meditation), and you document (journaling) new and positive learning outcomes from the situation, your brain can’t differentiate between the past misinterpreted situation that you experienced and the do-over situation that you created.

The do-over allows your brain to create new interpretations of the situation and adopt new beliefs. Then when you find yourself in a similar situation where you may have previously misinterpreted a circumstance, your brain can recognize this as a new opportunity, interpret the situation as positive (or scan for the positive) and help you become happier.

And this ladies and gentlemen is why I think happiness is awesome! This means we can actually train our brain to identify positive experiences or reframe situations to be positive, and overall become happier!

So What?

As I said, I’m in the middle of a 21-day experiment and have noticed my happiness to be much greater. And I practice the concept of do-overs all the time.

Do-overs started with personal reflection and journaling for a few minutes before bed. Although I have continued with journaling, I am in a position now where I constantly reframe situations whenever I feel myself getting angry, or not scanning for the positive.

I urge you to incorporate these very simple tasks into your daily life. Seriously! That’s what The Happy Friday Series is all about!

And what do you have to lose?

About The Author

Geoff Reiner writes at Geoff Reiner.com loves helping entrepreneurs and business owners see their business through a different lens. By asking difficult questions and providing a new perspective, he promotes personal growth and allows others to realize and unlock their full potential.

Do Powerful Brands Use Heart?

03/07/2013 By Jayme Soulati

The full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal boasts a “four-layered masterpiece” describing the hazelnut swirl atop the new Hazelnut Macchiato by Starbucks. The final words we’re left with (there are only 25 words total) are “Crafted by hand and heart.”

Several years ago, I complained to anyone who’d listen that Starbucks was in bed with the Wall Street Journal. I had never seen so much publicity and positive stories in this national business daily for a brand without the power and global reach of IBM, for example.

Incidentally, IBM is one of the five stocks being attributed for pushing the Dow to record high on March 6, 2013.

The ad we’re seeing by Starbucks today is colorfully creamy with espresso blending into the white latte to show a caramel you can’t resist (I never buy those ridiculously expensive lattes that are so full of calories, too). What is an appeal, suggests Starbucks, is that every barista makes your coffee drink with loving care — from the heart.

I’ve heard of people say that some baristas write a patron’s name on a cup with a cute little heart and a “have a great day” sentiment. I wonder if anyone has ever written a phone number for some cute customer? I think that would be too much heart.

Brands Using Heart Marketing

No other examples of powerful brands using heart come directly to mind, and (I think I just coined a new marketing field, Heart Marketing), so let’s do a scan through the last two days of Wall Street Journals to see whether heart is conjured:

Toyota: Toyota Shakes Up Top Ranks. Apparently, the family-owned car giant is now ready to welcome outsiders with open arms to its executive management. Think that’s a heart-felt move? Nope, just one of necessity for survival.
Clorox: The general counsel of Clorox, Laura Stein, researched the new CEO’s management style to learn how better to work with him. The new CEO, Donald Knauss “likes her go-getter style; ‘she will help anyone who asks for help.'” Heart or get-ahead smarts? I’m saying a bit of both. People who help have to be transparent or it’s just too smarmy.
Honest Tea: I wrote a post right here about Honest Tea and its CEO op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (what is it about the Wall Street Journal and beverage companies?) and in today’s paper that company gets a quarter page of top publicity with three color photos of beverages about Honest Tea’s New Soda. This company does have a heart and I know its guiding principles are about heart. Yes, a good example of powerful brands living by and using heart.

Let’s think of this a bit differently:

The world is a horrifying place for adults who are in touch with global and domestic news.
While the Dow dinks around in record territory and the housing crisis abates somewhat, students are still faced with record tuition at public universities.
Families are still grappling with lack of employment and other personal issues which contribute to red ink.

Is Starbucks on to something? With its subliminal copywriting that its baristas have a heart and care for you; does that work and will that bring in the patrons to order the new Hazelnut Macchiato?

Heart should not ever be taken with a grain of salt. It’s what I’m teaching kidlet — live from the heart, give to others first, focus outward, understand why someone is a bully and try to help them (well that’s a bit far fetched for a kid), but hopefully you get my drift.

Heart and Social Media

Heart computes in social media, too.

There are numerous people asking for help.

In fact, a 16-year-old asked me this week two questions about his brand new social media agency. Did I believe his prices were solid and how could he earn some credibility because people didn’t want to work with someone so young. I gave him my thoughts more than once and I invited him to write a guest post for The Happy Friday series.
How about the young man who found me locally who was writing a book and wanted my help publicizing that book? Now, mind you, that book of his was ensconced with one of those you-pay-we-publish businesses that just wanted his money; however, I spent time with him and counseled him and wrote a website and did a video with him. No charge.

What does your heart look like? How do you live it? I’m not talking about how much love you have for your offspring or spouse or partner. I’m talking about the values with which you live at work. Do you spout off about having heart, “C’mon, have a heart already!” or do you seriously come from a genuine place filled to the core with nurturing and caring and a desire to help, teach, support, share, and develop solid relationships?

Powerful brands can try to use heart to appeal to a patron who is down in the dumps; you, however, have the opportunity to make that a reality — a genuine and authentic reality.

What’s the outcome of all this? When someone you don’t know says to someone you do know who shares it with you, “You know what? I really like that girl, she’s the real deal.”

Enough said. Show me your heart…there’s a place for more love in business and social media. The scuttle butt I’m seeing, reading and hearing hasn’t been from the heart; perhaps it should be a guiding principle for each of us.

By Jayme Soulati

Must-Have Gadgets For Carry-On Travel

03/06/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Never is my carry-on shoulder bag completely packed until the morning of departure when all the gadgets and gizmos required to outfit my mobile office on the go is thrown together with cords flying and battery packs secured.

Because I always want the latest in tech gadgetry, although I’m still using Apple iPad 2 and iPhone 4S with Kindle Fire, the electronic accessories and awesome bags are what I look for to make me happier on the road.

If you could manage one back-pack of electronics and cameras with accessories, here are my picks for your carry-on luggage.

Bear with me as I change it up and we go shopping. What’s your favorite airport to snatch up a gadget? Nothing beats Chicago O’Hare and Denver makes me happy, too.

Gadgets for Business Travel

Wheeled Bag: $$$

Tumi gets my vote for luggage of choice for travelers. It’s durable, the handles withstand heavy ingredients, and the fabric is not easily ripped. Tumi has been creating more carry-on luggage for women in attractive colors, but the standard black for the men is also appealing. Mind you, the prices are not cheap, but you’re not going to replace these bags for 20 years! Quality begets cost savings, for sure!

Nikon J-1 Digital Camera: $$$

I purchased this a year ago and cannot say enough great things about this camera and video recorder. The clarity of images are better than I have ever had with other digital cameras, and it’s simple to use…truly a point and click experience. (Since it comes in red, pink, white, and black, I’m sure you can see why it has vast appeal, too! Here’s a white one with extra telephone lens.

iPad Case (all generations) With Bluetooth Keyboard: $

I bought this at O’Hare; what a perfect mistake! Had I waited to buy it via Amazon, I would not have spent way too much money. I adore this purchase; it has added new life to my iPad2 making it more convenient than ever to carry everywhere just like a light-weight textbook. The keyboard built in is such a dream; no more carrying cases for the Apple wireless keyboard. Very reasonable, too.

iPhone Camera Kit: $

If you don’t want the pricier digital camera (sometimes you need it), then do purchase a camera kit with magnetic lenses, a tripod and case to outfit the iPhone with some gear to keep your trigger finger happy taking photos.
I’ve been told my videos are shaky, so I have this ordered — a complete kit for iPhone 4/4S.

Pivot Power Mini: $

I hate looking around hotel rooms for the free outlet to plug in various devices. With this compact size adapter, you get two sockets and two USB ports; everyone is happy!

Ear Buds by Dr. Dre

This brand is so attractive; have you seen Dr. Dre everywhere? Ear buds are very personal, and you don’t have to invest in an expensive set to be happy. As a woman, I don’t want my curls smushed with a headset over my head and huge ear-muff circles. These are really sound absorbing; nothing comes in from the outside at all. I prefer the light-weight plug ins, and just got some of these at O’Hare (!).

External Battery Pack for All Smart Devices (all phones, devices)

You never should be without external battery packs with tips/adapters for all the devices and mobile computing systems you bring on the road. It will be years before adapters are uniform, so invest in a decent external battery back up so you’ve got power when stranded somewhere without electricity.

I own all of the above except for one item…the Tumi bag is on the wish list. Share your must-haves for business travel; everyone has something different.