I never posted here the video we did for PRGX’s NASDAQ bell ringing earlier this year. Pretty cool to see your work on display in Times Square. The photos I took are dreadful. It was cold, I was on my iPhone, etc. But you get the idea. Ringing the bell at NASDAQ is fascinating. It’s all electronic, right, because it’s NASDAQ – so you’re basically just on a TV set with a bunch of cameras. No traders. No bell, even. You press a button. It’s very Times Square: all artifice.
Another crappy photo of a momentous event, for your viewing pleasure.
OK, let’s try this “regular blogging” thing again.
New idea for a feature … quick snapshots of things we’re working on, whenever the desire strikes. Currently, it’s a kit of training materials for a C-level training course.
One of my clients forwarded this along today. One of the best things I’ve seen on the interwebs in a very long time. Thanks, Steve.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune Job Ad
“We want to add some talent to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune investigative team. Every serious candidate should have a proven track record of conceiving, reporting and writing stellar investigative pieces that provoke change. However, our ideal candidate has also cursed out an editor, had spokespeople hang up on them in anger and threatened to resign at least once because some fool wanted to screw around with their perfect lede.
We do a mix of quick hit investigative work when events call for it and mini-projects that might run for a few days. But every year we like to put together a project way too ambitious for a paper our size because we dream that one day Walt Bogdanich will have to say: “I can’t believe the Sarasota Whatever-Tribune cost me my 20th Pulitzer.” As many of you already know, those kinds of projects can be hellish, soul-sucking, doubt-inducing affairs. But if you’re the type of sicko who likes holing up in a tiny, closed office with reporters of questionable hygiene to build databases from scratch by hand-entering thousands of pages of documents to take on powerful people and institutions that wish you were dead, all for the glorious reward of having readers pick up the paper and glance at your potential prize-winning epic as they flip their way to the Jumble… well, if that sounds like journalism Heaven, then you’re our kind of sicko.
For those unaware of Florida’s reputation, it’s arguably the best news state in the country and not just because of the great public records laws. We have all kinds of corruption, violence and scumbaggery. The 9/11 terrorists trained here. Bush read My Pet Goat here. Our elections are colossal clusterfucks. Our new governor once ran a health care company that got hit with a record fine because of rampant Medicare fraud. We have hurricanes, wildfires, tar balls, bedbugs, diseased citrus trees and an entire town overrun by giant roaches (only one of those things is made up). And we have Disney World and beaches, so bring the whole family.
Send questions, or a resume/cover letter/links to clips to my email address below. If you already have your dream job, please pass this along to someone whose skills you covet. Thanks.”
Matthew Doig
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
1741 Main St.
Sarasota FL, 34236
(941) 361-4903
matthew.doig@heraldtribune.com
This week’s creative inspiration:
1. My GTD Workflow for GMAIL – a post by Mark Regan showing how he tames the email beast. Wow. Who knew? Multiple inboxes, labels, and filters galore — all explained and demonstrated. He says he checks email at 9, 1 and 5pm. Smart. I read recently that the two great fears of our time are “Will it make me fat?” and “Will it send me more email?” Hilarious. This at least resolves the latter.
2. RSAnimate – a site full of stop motion illustration videos, a la the UPS Whiteboard ads. Nothing is more mesmerizing than watching someone draw. Well. Witness: the cult popularity of Bob Ross and PBS’ The Joy of Painting. It seems every client I have these days wants hand-drawn illustrations, and I am currently on the hunt for people who have a knack for a good pencil sketch. But these also have insight and storytelling. Beautifully done by a UK charity, nonetheless.
3. Blue Valentine. I can not recommend this movie more highly. It is tragic, so expect to shed a tear and be haunted for a while. But it is so well written, alternating between the beginning and end of a couple’s romance, and beautifully filmed in close-up claustrophobic camera work. The script has tons of symbolism and meaning, and the performances are impeccable. It’s in theaters now but of course totally being overlooked by the Big Budget Awards Shows.
4. The Business Model Gameference. I have seen more tweets and posts about this conference than I can count. People from all walks of life and all different backgrounds seem to be interested. It is happening at the Hub SOMA, which is a cool co-working facility in SF, worth checking out in its own right.
Last year, I had my most successful year ever professionally. Clients came, jobs piled up, money poured in, and I found myself looking for people to hire.
But a curious thing happened as my professional star rose: my personal happiness plummeted. At first, I couldn’t figure out why. I had left corporate life seven years ago and started my own brand strategy business. I guess you could call it a success, since I was able to keep it alive for seven years, and during that time had maintained a steady stream of business from several Fortune 50 firms.
But after so many years, I had grown tired and bored. I was every bit as disgruntled as I had been when I was an employee.
I felt threatened by undone tasks all day and all night; I couldn’t see friends or do anything I enjoyed. And I wasn’t pursuing anything creative. The things I used to enjoy – getting away to the nearby beach or walking my precious dogs – became chores.
Breaking out on your own seems very liberating, and in the beginning, it is. But it can also be very isolating. Indeed, I had become isolated in my own space. I never got away from the computer, and spent entire days wrestling projects to the ground and barking at clients over email. It felt like I was on the same hamster wheel I hated about the enterprise. I had become my own overlord.
I’d long ago been given a copy of Stefan Sagmeister’s diary of his Year Without Clients (no link online, sorry), and I longed to do something similar. So at the end of the year, I stopped everything, closed up shop and bolted to Big Sur. If you’re not a designer or you don’t know Stefan Sagmeister, you will really enjoy learning about him. Start with this video or this essay.
I didn’t have a year to spare, so I tried it for two weeks. And during that week, I made myself my sole project. I carried around a piece of paper for jotting ideas, and a list of what needed to change. After the usual two days it takes to unwind, I started to get happy again. I started to laugh. I started to exercise. I started to see movies. I went out to dinner. I talked to strangers. I sidewalk shopped. I discovered new places. And … just like that … I started to get big ideas. The paper I carried around wasn’t enough; I was filling up bar napkins by the handful with ideas as they sprouted.
It’s so obvious now, but I was burned out. Way out. My little creative spark? It had turned into a towering inferno. This is a fantastic article about burnout by Scott Boms if you suspect your little flame has taken on a life of its own.
And here’s why I was burned out: everything in life is about connections, and we humans are SOCIAL beings. When you strip yourself of all connection (read: spend your days interacting with a computer screen), you can’t possibly be happy. No matter how much money you make, or how big the clients you’re serving.
At about the same time, I heard about the Income Plateau: a Princeton study that found that everything you make over $75,000 doesn’t matter. Once you’ve met the basic needs on Maslow’s hierarchy, no amount of money will make you happier.
Which has an interesting implication for CEOs. They’re taking on more responsibility, more stress, more direct reports than the rest of us – and in exchange, all they’re doing is depleting their own happiness reserves.
(This is worth keeping in mind next time you’re consulting to a CEO …. He’s probably not having much fun. Your job is to provide some.)
The other reason I was burned out? I need to keep learning. Do something different. No matter what I do, I will adapt to it, and grow tired of it. So I must constantly seek new challenges and push myself to evolve.
At the end of the two weeks away, I had made a careful list of 7 promises I would make to myself in 2011:
I’m still working on #1 and #3. But one of the things I did for #5 was to hire a trainer to come to my door at a certain time and pluck me from my surroundings. After a couple of phone conversations, he told me he didn’t want to work out with me in the mornings; he wanted to come in the middle of my day to break up my routine.
So now we work out twice a week at 11 AM, and we do it at the beach. He makes me squat and lunge while facing the water, basically forcing me to take notice of the beautiful natural scenery in which I live.
I’m a work in progress, but last year will never happen to me again. I’ve learned that to preserve my own creativity, I have to unleash it on my own behalf.
