John Winsor

A Rascal Moves On

A couple of weeks ago, artist and climber Steve Dieckhoff passed away from cancer. It was the end of an era for climbing in Boulder. While Steve love climbing and art (one of his comics is above) he wasn't too keen on the way the sport had changed. His passion turned into a sort of madness when he started taken matters into his own hands, taking out protection on many of the modern climbing routes that others had established creating a dangerous issue.

While Steve tactics seemed wrong his passion for the sport was inspiring. His life is a good reminder of the delicate balance between madness and brilliance, between holding on to traditions and letting go of antiquated ideas.

In every field, whether it be climbing or marketing, it's critical to know what to hold onto and what to let go of.  Holding on is easy. Letting go is hard.

1,2,3...Eyes on Me

If you're like me, it's impossible to keep your eyes on the safety video when you fly every week. They're so boring, Well, Delta Airlines is trying to make it a little less so. Following in Virgin America's footsteps they've remade their safety video with a bit of spice. Instead of choosing animation, they chose a finger wagging Laura Croft look alike to take the passengers through the safety tour. Well, it's a step in the right direction, I just wonder how long it will take for people to stop watching.

Technorati Tags: Delta Airlines,Virgin America

The Power of Direct Experience

While most of us are horrified with the thought of experiencing a stroke, Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor used her experience as a way to gain a more direct insight into the brain than she would ever have studying it from the outside in.

While most research and strategy is based on the same kind of observation from the outside in. How much more powerful is it to actually gain insight from direct experience from the inside out.

Technorati Tags: Ted,The Brain

Sioux Falls?

Ahh,.. the joys of travel. Yesterday coming from the east coast we got into Chicago a few minutes late, missing our plan to Denver. With Spring Break in full swing, the only choice was to take a plane through Sioux Falls. Sure it was a bummer, but it made me realize what a sheltered life I lead, cruising from coast to coast mainly in modern locales. Things have become so ubiquitous that it takes a forced stop over in Sioux Falls to make me realize that there is a very different America that I need to get to know a lot better. And, that's coming from someone who grew up in Canton, Illinois, a small farming community outside of Peoria.

Jump

Dean Potter has been known for pushing the edge in climbing for a while now, changing the way fellow climbers view speed and risk. Now he's come up wit ha new sport, Baselining. Essentially, it's slacklining, or tightrope walking, over an 800 foot gap with a parachute on his back as his only protection. If you want to make your palms sweat be sure to check out the video that the New York Times posted.

As a climber, I've always been interested in it's parallels with being an entrepreneur, from pushing the envelope to assessing risk. Here's a quote from Dean:

“When there’s a death consequence, when you are doing things that if you mess up you die, I like the way it causes my senses to peak,” Potter said. “I can see more clearly. You can think much faster. You hear at a different level. Your foot contact on the line is accentuated. Your sense of balance is heightened. I don’t seem to feel that very often meditating.”

I can see it, entrepreneurism as meditation.

Awareness

How aware are you? Things aren't always what they seem.

Start Your Own Reality Show, Part 2

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post with the title "Start Your Own Reality Show." with the following, simple body copy:

Why advertise or participate in product placement on a reality TV show when you could produce your own? That's what Ford is thinking about doing with a show based based around designing a car in a good example of the changing roles of producer, advertiser and consumer. Not only has the Internet made it hard to be an intermediary, technology, in general, is giving the opportunity for advertisers to have a more direct relationship with consumers by creating and distributing their own message. 

While the post had nothing to do about helping people start their own reality show, I've gotten over 150 comments from folks. Most of the comments start with, "Hi, my name is XXX XXXX and my friends and I want to do a reality show about..." 

With the overwhelming amount of information flowing by all of us ever day it's no wonder that headlines become even more critical. And, it's not surprising that so much of the information get's misinterpreted.

Sacred Ground

There's nothing like a pedal up Flagstaff Mountain in the morning to start the day of right. It's sacred ground. And, this morning was outrageous.

Culture Versus Influence

As many others in marketing, I've been intrigued by Clive Thompson's article about Duncan Watt's entitled, "Is the Tipping Point Toast,"  which appeared in Issue 122 of Fast Company.

Grant McCracken does a great job of outlining the substance of the article.

Duncan Watts (a research scientist at Columbia and, for the moment, Yahoo) argues that "influencers" are less influential than Gladwell's Tipping Point model would have us believe.  He argues that news travels as readily through ordinary people as influential ones.  This means that our world is not "hub and spoke," with some individuals acting like O'Hare and the rest of us like Cleveland or, pause, Dayton.  No, as Thompson put it, networks are  democratic.  We are just as likely to "get the news" from a friend as we are from an networking paragon.

I've been a firm believer in the power of diffusion and influencers. And, was passionate enough about it that it became the subject of my 2nd book, Beyond the Brand: Why Engaging the Right Customers is Essential to Winning in Business. 

However, for the last few months my opinion has changed since being here at CP+B. The agency has always believed that it's more important to change culture around a brand than it is to change the brand to fit into a culture. 

In the end, I believe it's an alchemy of cultural change and individual influence. As the cultural conditions change influencers become early detectors of this change and communicate it to the rest of the community.

iPhone as a Third Space

I think I'm loosing my mind. I swear I read recently that someone was calling the iPhone the 3rd computing space, after work and home. Maybe I confused the news with articles about the Apple allowing 3rd party software for the iPhone. It guess it doesn't really matter.

 

I've always liked Starbucks concept of their coffee houses as a third space after home and work. And, compared to other cell phones my iPhone has become my 3rd space. I can hardly wait for the enterprise upgrade in June.