Brand Burnout

One thing I noticed in the last 6 months of my job is that I was suffering from brand burnout.

As marketers, or any other position I suppose, we are susceptible to burn out with our jobs.  Specifically, for continuing to pound away on a brand message or position within the company.  Our copy can get stale.  Our advertising seems to lack luster.  Our presentations don’t have the zip they used to.  It’s a normal aspect of life, do something forever and your mind begins to wander.  Even worse, you question your own credibility and what you are doing on a constant basis, sometimes only subconsciously, but it’s still there.

I’m an aspiring author.  And by that I mean that I write on my own time and some day hope to be published.  That will probably take me a great amount of time, seeing as how I don’t have time to work on my hobby because I pour so much into the marketing day job.  Anyway, after some time you look at the words you’ve written and begin to question if they’re any good.  It works the same way in marketing, etc.

Being the sole marketer for an organization has ups and downs.  One great aspect is that I was in charge of the branding experience and positioning the company.  A big issue was that there wasn’t necessarily someone to throw ideas off of and build with.  So it was easy to second guess what I was doing.  That said, working in teams is a great way to combat that problem.  Teams act as a fail safe.  They catch what your own weary eyes may miss.  They are  your peers, and they keep you at your best consistently, because it’s easy to let a nameless and unknown down before someone you know well and respect.

Also, take a vacation.  I hadn’t had one in three years.  I didn’t realize how it was affecting my ability, but it was.  And I mean a two week, no looking at work, chilling out at the beach vacation.  Not a long weekend.

OK…back to resume writing, I’m procrastinating.

iPhone Review and Thoughts

Well, let me see here.  I’ve had the phone for roughly 6 days now.  It’s a pretty big upgrade over what I had previously (that’s not saying much though).  Some thoughts:

• The interface is amazing.  I hadn’t really touched the UI on the first iPhone, was just going off of popular public opinion about how awesome it is.  Scrolling is a breeze and FAST, navigation is extremely easy, it follows the same one button format as an iPod; the whole set up is just very intuitive, you want to look at something, you tap it.  You want to change something you edit it.  You want to start over you hit the only prominent button on the phone.  It was a leap of faith to purchase a phone such as this without actually using the features before hand.Since buying my iMac six months ago, I’ve found OS X to be essential.  It’s doubtful a Windows machine will grace my homes anymore.  It’s hard to describe why, but there are so many little things that make the OS more fun and easy to use.  There’s a lot of debate about this over the tubes, my assumption is that with a little more know how I could rig a Windows machine, or Linux machine to be similarly as rad.  But I’m a lazy pile of crap.  So I won’t be doing that.  The point here is that Apple had my trust to take a leap on a phone.  In fact, I did that with the iPod a few years back as well.  Kudos to them for garnering that trust and building on it with superior products.
• The most useful aspect of the phone so far in has been the GPS.  Well, the maps function plus the GPS.  I’m a complete humunculus with directions in my head.  I have this little voice in my head constantly worrying I’ve taken a wrong turn or gone too far (usually incorrectly), and as such I’ll double back too soon or alter my path at imprecise moments.  This is only the case in places are routes I’ve not yet taken, but those are frequent.I needed a maps function.  And the GPS only adds to it.  I’ve used them both frequently through the last few days, in my car and on my bike…even on foot.  No longer shall I wander aimlessly, physically at least.
• The phone feels a little cumbersome at first, but the more I use it the more that thought is negligible.  The screen is extremely bright.  Apple has created a gorgeous phone with an incredible amount of functionality to go along with it.I’m still debating whether or not to buy a skin/protective case of not.  Dropping this thing would be incredibly bad news.  It cost $388.xx with a protection plan.  Cracking the screen from a drop may not be covered in that.  Anything else would (malfunction, battery replacement, etc.) would probably be taken care of.  But I abhor the idea of covering it up or adding to the girth.  I’ll have to wait and see.
• The iPod is an iPod.  But having a touch interface and coverflow is pretty nice.  I can’t get certain artists to sync to the damn thing (The Strokes won’t show up) but overall it has a nice crisp sound.  The iPhone also offers an external speaker, which is pretty keen, it allows for playing some music at a lower level.The functionality of iTunes allows for music ring tones.  Way awesome for a music lover such as myself, finally get to drop those annoying electronica alerts.
• I’m going to have to get deeper into the application store at some point, but I’ll say this now:  it may be the most important aspect of the phone other than the display.  Getting apps and using them is as simple as pie.  I haven’t found any applications that are absolutely necessary at this point, but it’s a great idea, revenue model (for both publishers and Apple) and way to customize a phone.In the future, I believe that many phones and mobile devices will follow the trend of having a certain amount of space, then altering them to fit your needs via download.  It’s slick and, once again, the ease of use makes it viable for everyone.
• The browser is OK.  I know that it beats out everyone else hands down.  Companies specifically build websites for the iPhone and it shows, some are incredibly well put together.  Yet it’s still not much fun or easy for me to use the internet the same way I do on this beastromatic 24″ screen.  So, while I do use the internet, it’s not a “surfing” tool.  It’s a utility as necessary.
• Typing is far easier than I’d been given the impression.  Then again I do have incredibly sexy, slim fingers.  ;-).  Seriously though, it’s a breeze and although I do have some typos, they are often corrected by the predictive software.  No complaints here.I haven’t started to blog using this thing, but I’m sure I’ll eventually download the WordPress application and make some posts using it when I can’t make it to my laptop or back home.
• The camera is surprisingly good.  It’s only 2 mega pixels, but the pictures are clear and, despite a bit of blurring when in motion, great for what they need.  When I’m going on excursions expecting to do a lot of picture taking, I’ll probably take the Canon Digital Elph.  On those occasions where a quick snap is needed, this will be perfect.
• Battery power is still a bit of a question.  I’m not a heavy phone user, but I do rock out to the pod quite a bit, and using some rudimentary searches, GPS, Maps, Email etc. has been pretty normal for me when on the go.  I don’t think your average user should have any problem getting a full days worth out of the battery; those heavy users may run into some issues keeping it charged over long sessions away from home.
• And of course the plan.  Well, I’m paying $69.99 for the lowest tier of phone minutes with rollover (I don’t use my phone all that much) with a $5 upgrade for 200 text messages.  This is stretching it.  I may have to upgrade the text messages depending on the next few months.  Minutes won’t be a problem.  Data is unlimited.  Which is chrondolicious.I’ve already had a few coverage issues.  On my way up to Aitkin, MN, it was pretty spotty.  When in the woods it was nonexistent.  This isn’t a big problem though.

Overall, the phone is fantastic.  There are still some issues, but for me they are nominal at best.  One a 10 point scale, I’d give the iPhone a 9.3.  That’s bound to improve as Jobs continually advances the technology.  They are ahead of the competition in terms of utility and a positioning stand point.  I just don’t see anyone catching up.  Although a Gphone has been rumored, and a free ad based model might be able to make some noise.  Rumors though.  Today, it’s the iPhone.

This phone (or newer versions) will eventually be the most used phone in the world.

Shrinking the RSS

I’ve decided to hack out a ton of people from my RSS Reader.  It takes me a couple hours to read everything (I don’t even do this any more).  What seems pretty apparent to me is that a ridiculous amount of the ideas (and mine are certainly not above the fold) are repetitive and as such very boring.  The human writers, the people that write in their own voice, are the only ones able to keep me coming back.  What’s worse, the writers can’t seem to hold my attention.  With school upcoming, time will be in a crunch and it’s time to alter where my information is coming from.

There are many exceptions, but overall, it’s a time for a break from the blogosphere.

It seems pretty obvious to me now that I spend too much time reading blogs and not enough reading newspapers.  Specifically the Wall Street Journal, which I believe is an expectation of going to business school.  If I want reactions from blogs, they are only a search away.  As of right now it’s something like a 95/5% split.  A 60/40% split seems a little more representative in order to stay informed.

So I just hacked it down to 19, although my blogroll will remain unchanged in case I want to make quick checks.

The Communist Manifesto

Written in conjunction by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, The Communist Manifesto is a simple and direct shout during the 19th century that called for the overthrow of the Bourgeois (or more presently apt, capitalists) through that of the Proletarians (working class).

Why read this?  There are a few reasons.  Beyond the historical weight of the work, it’s important to understand the situations you are in.  I have no formal education in philosophy, trends in capitalism, political ideologies of any sort, etc.  It’s probably time that was remedied.  Often, studying the criticism of what is happening around you can lead to an excess of knowledge comparatively speaking to the explanations.  Criticism tends to focus on the weaknesses within the pillars of an idea, whereas explanations tend to gloss over the pillars and focus on great amounts of detail.  Though this criticism is certainly very old, it is one of the most important criticisms of all time.

This writing was originally published anonymously as a pamphlet in London.  As mentioned, the idea behind the pamphlet was to urge others to take action and begin the stirrings of social revolution.  The writing focuses on the problems associated with a capitalistic society (though Marx hasn’t fully recognized the idea of capitalism) where the people with capital can control the wages of humans and treat them as commodities.  A description of all societies of history being in constant class war opens the book.  It is a bipolar representation.

It goes on to urge many large changes, including the switch to a classless society, the abolishment of owning land (another form of capital) and nation states.  That was 150 years ago.  Marx has proven incredibly apt in his first thoughts on capitalism and how it operates.  He pointed out that it must always grow larger in order to thrive, and thus, globalization would occur for proliferation (that’s very evident today).  Marx believes that eventually capitalism will collapse upon itself, as production is optimized and the workers wages are pushed down (there is an argument for this as the price of inflation out grows the minimum wages locally, exponentially internationally).  He also points out the geographical likelihood that concentrations of people will become more drastic (quite so) in order to facilitate production.

Is there still a Proletarian class?  Yes.  Although the situation isn’t quite as Marx points out, he thought that their wages would be just enough to allow for continuation of their work.  Today, it seems that wages are in excess of that, though not necessarily for everyone.  I think that capitalism allows for people to excel, which is something hard to take away.  I certainly want the opportunity to excel and increase my holdings based on my work.  The problem is that those with capital essentially hold all the keys.  Those without do not necessarily have the means to achieve those ends they seek.  Despite what we are told, not just anyone can achieve status in a capitalistic society, there are certain prerequisites and the first is some sort of capital to employ a relative surplus value.  Because I haven’t investigated these concepts in any depth, I’m not going to elaborate now, but I am ordering much more Marx material and reading up on his ideas.

Myers Briggs & EQi

I just had a meeting with someone regarding my personality testing for the Carlson program.  It’s fun to take a look at the different traits that are used to describe all of our personalities.
As for the tests, they played out essentially as expected.  Today, I’ll focus on the Myers Briggs assessment and what it means, if I have time I’ll touch on some EQi stuff another day.  I know I spoke a lot about the value of these tests, or lack thereof, but for what it’s worth, they seem pretty well aligned to my self perception.

Personality types are measured by the MBTI instrument, which measures the following (with my results in parentheses) and a quick explanation:

1.  Extraversion/Introversion : (Extroversion). This refers to where a person focuses their attention.  This is pretty self explanatory.

2.  Sensing/iNtuition: (iNtuition). “Sensers” rely on their surroundings and perception of the physical world whereas intuition is more focused on imagination and thinking of what the future could hold.

3.  Thinking/Feeling: (Thinking). Thinkers generally make decisions on logic based ideas while feelers generally make decisions on values, instincts and people centric concerns.

4.  Judging/Perceiving: (Judging). Judging is more so a planned and orderly outlook, perceivers enjoy being spontaneous and flexible.

So from these factors, my personality is thrown into the ENTJ bucket.  Here’s a description of the ENTJ personalities.  Now for those of you who know or have worked with me, this is EXTREMELY representative of my thought process and behavior.  Almost eerily so.  That’s fantabuloid, but I want to know how to get better.  And from what my initial questions were answered, it seems that awareness and transparency are the next steps.  Using terminology such as “I feel like” and open forums for describing your decision making are good ideas for acknowledging and garnering acceptance for those patterns.

The second test I took was an EQ testing.  I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few months describing EQ (click on the EQ category to the right) so let’s just get to it.  I scored pretty well.  The score range is 0-150 in the major areas, 100 being average.

My scores in Intrapersonal EQ, Interpersonal EQ, Adaptability EQ, General Mood EQ were all over 110.  That’s good, I think.  The one area where I was lower was Stress Management EQ, which was a 103.  Still above average, but because of the disparity between that and my other areas, it’s something to watch.

Is this information a very great indicator of my leadership ability?  Well I hope so.  But I think it’s more in the action and the work than in the predictions.  Little is more abundant than wasted talent.

There is also a new program at Carlson called the Leadership Fellows, which is a group of seminars and mentoring group that looks like a phenomenal opportunity.  I’ll certainly be joining.

iPhone

Yep.  Got it, 16g white.

I’ll touch on this in a week or so once I’ve gotten used to the functionality.

The Art of War

Sun Tzu wrote the book.  It’s seen as a literary classic, probably because the information included in it has probably shaped the world more profoundly than any other book on the planet.  Frankly, it’s unimportant how intelligent you are when under siege from a stronger military mind.

The previous supposition could easily be refuted, the Bible being so important and all (other examples as well).  What I mean though, is that this book, that warfare is the means to achieve the ends that religious gospel and ideology promote (heavily ironic that what these books preach have not been used in practice, IE fighting for peace).  In short, understanding and being efficient with warfare means that you will dictate the present and future.

As such, The Art of War the book is important.  The art of war as a concept is as important as any other concept in recorded history.

It’s also been mentioned today as relevant in a business sense.  Which is why I read it.  I’m very interested in history (and how to avoid it’s repetition) which includes warfare, so this isn’t beyond my scope of reading material; yet this was more as a business recommendation.  Frankly, it fell short.

Business today isn’t necessarily a zero sum game.  Certainly there are instances where that is the case in terms of competition, but there is so much differentiation today…I found the correlation to be lacking.  Marketers and companies themselves must thrive by advocacy to the consumer, preference from those with the resources to continue our trade (money).  So when a person has a certain amount of their budget allotted to, say, laundry detergent…certain companies are attempting to garner your choice.  They want you to buy their brands over others in order to continue their business.  This is where the idea of war steps in.  Some think that applying principles of war to this situation will result in similar victories.

Things have changed too much for that to be the case.  Thinking in the same terms included in TAOW would result in too simple an outlook.  Though some things certainly still make sense, bigger companies (armies) take longer to set in motion, yet have greater amounts of resources (artillery) to use.  The element of surprise is still valuable.

We must not look at business as war.  We must look at business as farming.

Those companies that best understand the lie of the land, the resources available, the value of hard work and the processes which are bound to result in plentiful harvest, those companies will thrive.  Although the weather and other variables will alter our terrain consistently, good farmers are able to persevere through these things and year after year produce that which allows for sustainable yields.

The Dark Knight

This is worth writing about.  For what it’s worth, I haven’t gone to movies with any regularity for years; I average about three theater visits a year, with good reason.  Movies simply are not that enjoyable for many reasons.  I prefer going to a quiet restaurant or coffee house where conversation is audible.  The product itself marketed itself to a crescendo, and it’s showing.  There’s something to credibility.  The first movie was very good, this movie was even better.  I wasn’t positive it would be as good as the first movie going in, seeing as Ledger’s demise is bound to add to the hype.  His performance was incredible, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a deserved Oscar posthumous.

Christian Bale is the perfect choice for this role.  The entirety of the film cast was great, in fact.  Their synergy was odd though, it’s as if they all did well on their own, but I don’t think of it as a concerted effort.  Regardless, the acting was immense.

Batman was my favorite super hero growing up.  The reason?  He’s not a super hero.  He’s just a man.  A man who leveraged all of his ability and intelligence, putting them into motion to protect a city.  Plus, he’s a detective, someone who relies on his wits in order to catch criminals, not merely force.  These movies have fully encapsulated what Batman is and why he’s such a compelling character.  His sacrifice, especially.

Comics are hard to emulate in movies.  This was amazingly engrossing.  The 2.5 hours flew by faster than most 1.5 hour movies and I want to go to it again.  I’m not going to get into detail about the plot, there are a large amount of twists that were unforeseeable, and the cadence of the movie is flawless.

See it as soon as possible.

Why…so…SERIOUS?

Aesop’s Fables

A fable is a great way to learn something.  They have a way of overriding normal stories because of their succinct and memorable nature.  We have heard fables from a very young age, through many different places including schools, churches, friends, television and books.

Aesop’s Fables is a culmination of the earliest usage of fables.  Aesop himself was a story teller, born a slave and given his freedom for his auspicious wit and ability.  It’s actually intriguing that his own end would come as somewhat of a parable.  He was commissioned to distribute a sum of gold to another country’s population.  Upon his arrival in the foreign land he held disdain for those people and decided against giving them the gold.  The people sought revenge by hiding a gold chalice in Aesop’s bags and framed him as a thief.  The crowd then took liberty to throw him off of a cliff.

This isn’t a business book.  But it is a life book.  There are a great many lessons to learn and the beauty of the fables is their naturally digestible nature.  The book is about 250 pages, but reads as though it were 100.  It would take an average reader a scant few days to complete it.  Animals are often used to illustrate the tendencies and precarious situations we humans find ourselves in.  Find the lessons here, they apply everywhere and especially in business.  I’ll leave you with the first fable of the work:

A famished fox saw some clusters of ripe black grapes hanging from a trellised vine. She resorted to all her tricks to get at them, but wearied herself in vain, for she could not reach them. At last she turned away, hiding her disappointment and saying: “I had thought those grapes were ripe, but I can see now they are quite sour.”

Resume Changes

Well this is disappointing. I just met with a lovely gal at Carlson about my resume, and got some bad news. All that work I put into my resume (which was posted here) will go for naught.

At Carlson, they implement something called a resume book, used for potential employers to shuffle through. I assume this is not the only means of offering a resume to employers, but it is certainly the preferred method for two unacquainted parties. Here’s the kicker, to be in the resume book you have to use a Microsoft Word template with macros. Ugh.

Now I have all the respect in the world for this gal and Carlson. But this is a big mistake. There are a few good reasons for this. The first thing that comes to mind is that the way I layout my resume and what I use to format it are measures of my creativity in itself. Taking that away is bogus. The flip side of the argument is that potential employers are looking for redundancy in order to pinpoint critical information about a candidate. This would simplify a resume search for some, but after recently conducting a thorough resume search on my own for my replacement at my previous employer, I can guarantee that putting information in the exact same format as someone else is far more likely to get me cast aside than having a unique resume.

Secondly, making all resumes uniform does little to highlight candidates’ strengths. For instance, I may well not have the credentials matched perfectly for an employer needing, say, a copywriter. Yet if I were to frame my abilities in such a way that shown my talents adequately, those deficiencies could be overcome, not so with a uniform text. Understanding this supposition is somewhat dependent on seeing the formatting of the macro piece, but I digress.

A resume is meant to put your best foot forward, and altering my format to match everyone else is anything but that. I want and need to express my creativity as well as my writing ability; which are severely hindered within the given constraints. We’ll see what comes of this. As of right now, I’m going to do both versions. Send them both with an argument for why I’d like to use my preferred version and see if I can get that used instead of the cookie cutter piece. I’ll post both and poll the readers of this blog to get an adequate idea of which is preferable.