Showing posts with label smart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smart. Show all posts

Organizational Disorganization


I know. There are whole companies circling wagons right now, ready to send out their best and brightest consultants to tell you how to organize your business and your life. They're going to tell you to simplify, be proactive instead of reactive and think not just two hours away but six months.

My question is simply: why do you need someone TELL you that?



When did we, as a culture, get so lost in the tangled web we weave that we consistently lose the forest for the trees? How many times do I remind myself that my kids DON'T need an iPod or a cell phone, even though everyone around us has one?
When did tin cans for a ten year old lose their telecommunication viability?


It's not that I am snubbing technology. I am snubbing idiocy. Why do you need someone to tell you LESS IS MORE? Didn't your mama explain that early on? A stitch in time saves nine? Do for others as you would have them do unto you?

Simplifying is about more than your wardrobe space. It's a decision to make reality less virtual and more static. It's the choice to say today I will do one positive thing for myself that is completely unselfish.

It's realizing that the tangled web isn't just woven by US and that we need to keep our patterns in flow with the next intricate web. It's knowing our ebbs and flows and working through them to make life WORK FOR US instead of working for life.

Start checking out the webs around you and think first how you best fit into their design...and realize that you are the one making up your own pattern-not a consultant, not your mother, and certainly not your environment. Make the tough choices, don't always do the easy thing and the world will come around once more with you on the sunny side of the street.







8/19/2008 | Labels: , , , , , , , | 1 Comments  

the curse of the crappy brochure

I love helping people market their goods or services. Yet time and again, when speaking to them about it, they opt for the path of least resistance--the tried and true brochure. Granted, I am a fan of brochures; I have one myself. But with so many options out there--like blogging--why go with such a limiting form of communication?

And then there are the problems faced with actually DESIGNING the brochure:

  • fold style (tri-fold, bi-fold etc)
  • paper quality (NO, you should not print them on your home Epson)
  • content (too much, too little, grammatical issues)
  • appearance (does it adhere to graphic standard? does it match your overall branding? does it market you the best it can? is it interesting?)
  • purpose (who will get it? where will you keep it? etc)

I try to get responses to these all-important questions before we go very far. If the client can't answer them, I know more directives will be necessary and (hopefully) I can steer them in the right direction. But then there is the question of online brochures, PP presentations, presentation folders and discs, etc.

The point of this litany:

Try and make your clients out-of-the-box thinkers. Think out of the box yourself.

Not just for profit; for the longterm benefits these new web2.0 methods present.

8/15/2008 | Labels: , , , , , , , , , | 0 Comments  

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