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How Clarity Digital Helps Its Clients Speak To The Movers And Shakers In Congress

by Brad Besancon

Transcript

Transcript

Brad: Hello everyone. It’s Brad and Robert again with our Clarity Clip of the Week. We’re still out here in DC because we brought a client up here to kind of understand the language of this city because we all know this city has its own language in congress and audience speak and everything else. And we brought him up here to talk a little bit about what Robert? They’re a medical company.

Robert: Well, their message to congress and how they could be affected by the regulatory environment. Once we had a brainstorming with them, we realized from our political experience that one line in a healthcare bill could wipe out their business model and they did not know that.

Brad: And they wouldn’t even know it, right? When you know it, when something like that happens in particular business categories, it’s too late.

Robert: So it’s sort of an example of what we do. We’re way more than content and social media. We kind of take a deep dive into your business.

Brad: Yeah. I mean we dive in headfirst to understand all the ins and outs, trials, tribulations, things that you need to be concerned about well beyond, “Hey, I need a new website. Can you guys write some social media posts for us?”

Robert: So we have a term called “audience speak” of understanding the audience language that is spoken. So you saw there’s a different language in this city.

Brad: Yeah. Let me tell you what. We’ve met with four, five firms up here, some of the top lobbyists in DC. Some of the movers and shakers if you will, that old school terminology, and there’s so many acronyms up here that I had to stop and ask Robert because he spent some time up here and knows what all this stuff mean.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: And I was learning their audience speak.

Robert: Right.

Brad: I was learning their language and it’s – and just in communication, basic communication up here.

Robert: And we were trying to teach our client that you have to talk a different way in this city.

Brad: Yeah. You can’t just come up and shake hands and have a cup of coffee and everything. In fact one of the guys that we met with, a mover and shaker, even said, “You can’t trust a guy across the table from you because you don’t know what he’s about.”

Robert: Right, right.

Brad: Well, unfortunately that’s just the way it is.

Robert: So if you need help trying to navigate this place with your message, that’s something we do.

Brad: Yeah, we can definitely help you guys with that, especially when it comes to getting people involved that know this business, if you will, and know this language, so that you don’t have to.

Robert and Brad: That’s our Clarity Clip.

[End of transcript]

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Audience Language, AudienceSpeak, Brainstorming, Clarity Digital Marketing, Congress, DC, Health Care, Health Care Bill, Lobby Team, Lobbyist, Lobbyists, Medical Company, Movers and Shakers, Regulatory Environment, social media, social media posts, Washington DC

Who Really Does All That Tweeting At The White House?

by Brad Besancon


Transcript

Transcript

Robert: It’s Robert and Brad. We’re standing outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue where we’ve just had a meeting.

Brad: Yeah, it was pretty cool. We met with the Social Media Director for President Trump, spent about 15, 20 minutes with him and just talking social media and it was pretty interesting Robert because even though White House knows the importance of social media, even though we meet company after company that does it, he actually has a call every morning with the president at around 6:00, 6:30 just to talk about what we need to do in social media.

Robert: The president is savvy. Those tweets are the president’s. There’s not some body –

Brad: That’s right. You heard it here, inside scoop.

Robert: Yeah. They’re not behind the scenes writing it. They’re the president’s and then after they get the kind of marching orders of what he’s tweeting, he calls all the networks and gives them a heads up of, you know, here’s going to be the message at the White House today and this is a big change that has gone on here since I covered the White House.

It used to the news media kind of set the message of the day. Now this president shows how using social media, he sets that message and the media has to follow it and there’s a lesson there for business.

Brad: Well, it’s what we talk about all the time about controlling the message, controlling your content, driving – being proactive, not reactive and the president has it nailed. He knows exactly what that is and knows that principle probably from his business background. You know, controlling that message. The other thing that we heard a lot of was about the importance of talking the right language to your audience and his base in his party and that’s all audience speak.

Robert: And here’s the other impact we’ve seen on what – how this has affected politics. We’ve met with some candidates who are in races. What do they want to know how to do?

Brad: Exactly. They want to know how to ramp up the base, get everybody fired up. Well, we call it “poking the passion” or “firing the passion” and being sure that the message is going out in the right format and the right language. That’s audience speak.

Robert: Hey, they personally want to know, “How do I tweet it? How do I do Facebook?” That’s something really you as the owner and the CEO, that’s a big a part of your brand, you need to know how to do that.

Brad: Yeah, you really do. So that is the Clarity Clip of the Week from the White House and we’re signing off now. So have a good one, guys.

[End of transcript]

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: AudienceSpeak, Controlling Your Content, How Do I Do Facebook?, How Do I Tweet?, Media, Message of the Day, News Media, President, Proactive, social media, Tweeting, Tweets, White House

3 Tips For Business Owners To Make Their Websites Mobile Friendly

by Brad Besancon

Mobile Friendly Websites – Interacting With Your Brand

Transcript

Transcript

Brad: You better be thinking mobile first with website design. You better be thinking mobile first with photography, content. How is your social media?

 

You know, 60 something percent of our time online now is in social media. So how are you using this to better your brand and your connection?

Mobile Friendly Design

Robert: You have to first look, “Well, what does that look like on the mobile phone?”

 

Brad: On the phone, on a 4.5, 5-inch screen, not a 27-inch desktop anymore.

 

Robert: You as the executive and business owner, you might be still looking at the desktop. But I got to tell you something. You’re not your customer. That’s not the way they experience the world. It’s not the way they’re going to experience your product or your service.

AudienceSpeak

Brad: Yeah, it’s right back to audience speak. What is the people you’re trying to target doing? How are they interacting with your brand? How are they interacting with life? Which now we interact with life right here now.

 

Robert: Yeah.

 

Brad: We don’t just come to a mall anymore and hang out. We’ve got to show on Instagram. We got to check in. We got to do all this stuff. That’s the screen between life we’re now seeing.

 

Robert: So here are some questions for you as a business owner. If you’re wondering what those kids downstairs are doing with your brand and social media and all, well, first off – and the developers, because you don’t speak their language. But here are some simple things that will equip you to ask the right questions.

Mobile Friendly = Mobile First

One, is it mobile first? Go look at your own website on the phone. Does it stack up? Does everything look right to you on the phone? Secondly –

 

Brad: I got another one. Call your customer service department and see how it works.

Mobile Friendly – Touch to Call

Robert: Yeah, yeah. So on the phone. Can I touch the phone number and call your office? Can I touch the address and it takes me –?

Mobile Friendly – Maps

Brad: Get the map.

Mobile Friendly – Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP Pages)

Robert: Immediately to the map. You would be surprised how much this is not going on. Another question I ask them is that – developers, “Are we on AMP? Are we AMP-ed? AMP-ed up?” Well, what does that mean? That means accelerated mobile pages.

 

Everything online –

 

Brad: Download.

Mobile Friendly = Pleasing Google

Robert: Yes. Everything online these days is about pleasing Google, kissing up to Google and as much as you might dislike that, they own it.

 

Brad: It’s the way it is.

 

Robert: So they’re big on a thing called “AMP” and what this means is there’s a code put on every one of the pages of your website. That’s going to mean they load on the phone, they load mobile much, much faster. Why is that important? Well, it’s because you want to please Google and you know that somewhere down the line, if I haven’t done that, well, and my competitor has, then they have an advantage on us.

 

Brad: Well then again, people aren’t experiencing who you are or what you’re about or anything about you on a desktop anymore.

 

Robert: Right.

 

Brad: In that scenario where I asked Robert for a recommendation, guess what Brad is going to do the minute after Robert says, “Call Bob Jones,” or whatever.

 

Robert: Yeah.

 

Brad: I’m going to go look at Bob Jones right there. It’s right here now. Everything is right here that I need.

Mobile Friendly – Page Speed

Robert: So you go there. What if it just takes forever to load? The pages are not coming up and all. Well, you as the business owner/executive, hey, we’re going to give you a tip down in the bottom of the notes here of how you can go check up on the developers into doing their job. There’s a page speed test. It’s available to all developers. Obviously there’s a lot not using it.

 

Brad: Yeah.

 

Robert: But it’s going to tell you. It’s going to rate your website, the mobile experience and the speed because Google is measuring how fast your page opens in milliseconds. It’s a race. But what it is about is that – do you want to frustrate your customer? It’s almost the equivalent –

 

Brad: It may not even be a customer.

 

Robert: Yeah, your prospect.

 

Brad: It may not even be a customer there.

 

Robert: It’s like leaving someone on hold when you call.

 

Brad: Yeah.

 

Robert: That is the way it is.

 

Brad: Good start [0:03:19] [Phonetic].

 

Robert: That’s our Clarity Clip of the week. We will see you here in the next couple of weeks.

 

[End of transcript]

Filed Under: Mobile Tagged With: AMP, Brand management, cellular telephone, Customer experience, Digital media, executive, Google Search, google+, Human Interest, Information and Communications Technology, Instagram, Mobile phone, Mobile Telecommunications, New media, Search Engines, social media, Technology, Technology_Internet, time online

There’s A Screen Between You And Your Customers. Is Your Brand Present?

by Brad Besancon

Mobile First: The Screen Between Your Audience and Your Brand

Transcript

VideoTranscript

 

Brad: Well, hello everyone. It’s Brad and Robert with Clarity Clip again and we are sitting in NorthPark Center Mall here in Dallas, Texas and we’re – it actually is Valentine’s Day and we’re wandering around here doing some observations, some – listening to things, speak research. What are we seeing?

 

Robert: Well, we’re seeing couples on Valentine’s, a special moment, and they’re going, “Hey, honey. I love you,” and she’s sitting right over there.

 

Brad: Yeah, they’re texting.

 

Robert: Oh, I love you too.

 

Brad: It’s the screen between.

 

Robert: Smile, heart, heart, heart.

 

Brad: The screen between.

 

Robert: Yes.

Experiencing Life With The Screen Between

Brad: The screen between. And one of the things we’ve really noticed – I mean this isn’t new, right folks? This isn’t new. But really over the last couple of years, it has really gotten bad, if we can say bad. But what we call it now is we call it life being experienced with a screen between. We don’t just go to a kid’s event anymore. We don’t go to a football game anymore. We don’t come to the mall anymore without doing what? We’re on our phone.

 

Robert: Yes.

 

Brad: And we can’t just watch our child sing or dance. We have to video it. “What do they do with all the video?” I wonder. What do people do with all that video if they get done with it? This is so bad that I heard the social secretary for President George W. Bush talk about – it became an issue in the White House and these are big, high-end donors. They’re all aged. They’re baby boomers. They’re older and stuff and they started getting complaints at all the events for the donors and supporters that no one can see the president because everybody has got –

 

Brad: Everybody has got – everybody is doing this.

 

Robert: Yeah. So they literally – the Secret Service had a bucket as you would go in and they started collecting them. So the fact that that demographic –

 

Brad: It’s not millennials. It’s not just millennials.

 

Robert: It’s everywhere.

 

Brad: It’s everyone.

 

Robert: That’s what our clients do not understand.

Think Mobile First With Web Design

Brad: Yes. One of the things we’re also seeing, which we’ve been preaching, we’ve been talking about for years in our company is you better be thinking mobile first. With website design, you better be thinking mobile first. With photography, content.

 

How is your social media? You know, 60 something percent of our time online now is in social media. So how are you using this to better your brand and your connection? Because there’s no more, “Hey Robert, do you know somebody that does this?” and I just – yeah, call this guy and I just call him. It’s over.

 

Robert: So first off, if your team in your company and marketing, there’s – talking about a new website or they’re talking about what they do on Facebook, you have to first look, “Well, what does that look like on the mobile phone?”

Think Mobile First and Responsive Design

Brad: On the phone, on a 4.5, 5-inch screen, not a 27-inch desktop anymore.

 

Robert: You as the executive and business owner, you might be still looking at the desktop. But I got to tell you something. You’re not your customer. That’s not the way they experience the world. It’s not the way they’re going to experience your product or your service.

AudienceSpeak: Communicating Your Message & Brand Through The Screen

Brad: Yeah, it’s right back to audience speak. What is the people you’re trying to target doing? How are they interacting with your brand? How are they interacting with life? Which now we interact with life right here now.

 

Robert: Yeah.

 

Brad: We don’t just come to a mall anymore and hang out. We’ve got to show on Instagram. We got to check in. We got to do all this stuff. Mobile, mobile, mobile because we are living in a screen between lifestyle now. So you have to think, “How can I get in between my potential client or customer’s life with that screen between?”

 

So whatever they’re experiencing, how do I interject my brand into that screen between to really connect and converse and then ultimately convert, right? That’s what we’re here for. So that’s our Clarity Clip of the week. We will see you here in the next couple of weeks and guys, get out there and enjoy life. Put the screen between down.

 

Robert: Thank you.

 

[End of transcript]

 

Filed Under: Digital Marketing Tagged With: brand, cellular telephone, Dallas, executive, Facebook, George W. Bush, Human Interest, Instagram, mobile, Mobile phone, President, Secret Service, social media, Social Media & Networking, social secretary for President George W. Bush, time online, White House

How Social Media Amplifies Online Passion For The Ringbrothers Muscle Cars

by Brad Besancon

Passion about Hot Rods, Muscle Cars, and all things automotive overflows at SEMA 2017 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Robert Riggs talks to Jim Ring of the Ringbrothers about the custom muscle cars they unveiled and how it sets social media on fire for their business.

Transcript

[Mike Ring of The Ringbrothers Talks Muscle Cars & Hot Rods at SEMA 2017] [03:01]

Robert Riggs: Hi, I’m Robert Riggs with Clarity and we’re here at SEMA 2017 with Mike Ring, the older half of The Ringbrothers.

Mike Ring: That’s correct.

Robert: Which I think I best describe as the Michelangelos of car customizing.

Mike: Thank you.

Robert: So let me talk to you about passion. What is the passion? You go through here, there’s tens of thousands of people in here. What is that passion?

Mike: I think you grew up with it or you’re influenced by something or someone at a very young age, and for us, it was just wanting to get out of a small town and trying to find a way to get out of there, and it was amazing.

Robert: So behind me is what I’d call an old school restoration truck customization and we baby boomers, we love that, so what was it in that car that you were doing it for yourself that knew you wanted to do it?

Mike: We’ve done so many cars and we really hadn’t been known for doing any trucks at all, and what’s nice about it is we didn’t have to get super crazy and it wasn’t to make a statement or anything, it’s just about making a cool little truck for the shop, so using the original chassis to start with was not normal for us and it was just fun, it was just fun.

Robert: So you got a new wave coming up of Millennials.

Mike: Yes.

Robert: What’s their passion and do you see them – do you see Millennials some day as older adults being your clients?

Mike: I think the Millennials are going to demand a whole different type of vehicle. I hope they do. I’m really nervous that they will just take Uber everywhere and not even want a vehicle anymore. I don’t know where it’s going but I hope they do, but I think the technology with these kids and what they’re going to want, I mean, we’re seeing it the young guys that are working for us to be able to model things like I say in CAD, and create a car maybe that’s not even been out there – it’s their dream, and really, with technology today, there’s shops like ours that can build anything.

Robert: So you see basically scratch customized cars?

Mike: Scratch-built cars, yes, I really do, I think people that have the money are going to – they have a dream and they’re going to want to be able to create a – and a lot of the young people today could probably design their own car in some way that could bring to somebody and pull it off.

Robert: So do you ever just pinch yourself and say, “Wow, how did this happen?”

Mike: Yes, I mean, I come from a town of 600 and just think that people know who you are around the world sometimes. It’s pretty crazy.

Robert: So did you ever tried to race it?

Mike: No, not yet. I’m just kind of the one that is to do the bodywork and paint. My brother loves to just tear them up and chip them up, and he doesn’t care. I get a little bit upset with that but after seeing it done, the pressure is off.

Robert: Okay, well, hey, I appreciate you talking to us and understanding passion and the Millennials.

Mike: Yes, thanks.

Robert: Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Mike: Very much.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Automotive industry, Jim Ring, Las Vegas Convention Center, Muscle car, Robert Riggs, SEMA, social media, Technology_Internet

How Social Media Souped Up The Ringbrothers Hot Rod Business

by Brad Besancon

Brad Besancon talks to Mike Ring of the Ringbrothers at SEMA 2017 about how Facebook marketing expanded their custom car business to an international market. If these Baby Boomer hot rod builders use social media, don’t you think it’s about time you started?

Transcript

Brad Besancon: Hello, everyone. It’s Brad with Clarity again and we have the honor of sitting here with Mr. Ring of Ring Brothers and we are going to talk a little bit about social media. We’re not going to talk too much about cars which is kind of odd for you, isn’t it?

Mike Ring: It is, yes. It’s the end of 2017, same line, it’s been all cars.

Brad: So yesterday, we were in a Hot Rod Association panel with you and listened to you, and you indicated how important social has become to your business in kind of bringing on the passion of the next generation. Tell me a little bit about when you guys realized that social should be a part of kind of your overall business model.

Mike: Well, I got to tell you, we were pretty late in the game. I mean social has been around – we didn’t pick up on it until probably five years ago, how important it was and I’ll tell you, it was truly important. I mean, it got us to be able to reach out and find people and have people find us that we’d never have the opportunity to get. That includes all over the world. I mean, we’ve got customers from London, England. We’ve got a customer from Russia. You can’t get that without social media.

Brad: Right, and it just helps you spread your message and what you’re doing, and your passion for cars because you guys are very unique in what you do. You guys talked about that yesterday, about how it’s your kind of model and what you do, so you realized that, and then what did you start doing? Did you just jump in there full-fledged or did you like, “Hey, what do we do with this stuff?”

Mike: It was honestly way over our head. We had to hire a company to do it. Our sales went up, everything about it was good. Today, I don’t know how you could be without it.

Brad: Yes, and so let’s talk about that. So here we are, it’s not a typical business. We heard that also in the seminar, “I don’t use social, I don’t use social,” and then here’s The Ringbrothers using socials. How has it influenced business from a standpoint – because you guys do a lot – you don’t just build cars. You do parts and some other things.

Mike: We also do collision work.

Brad: So how has that affected your overall business?

Mike: It’s tremendously, like I said, you could get customers that you could never get without it and it also allows people, to really show them what you’re doing. The followers we have right now, I mean, I don’t even know the exact numbers, a couple hundred thousand Facebook, which that’s a couple hundred thousand people. That’s a lot of audience for just kind of starting out into this.

Brad: Yes, and you never know which one is going to pick up the phone and call you and say, “Hey, man, I really liked what you did. Can you do that for me?” So let’s talk about what you are doing. How do you use, let’s say Facebook or social media now in kind of keeping that connection with your customers and your fan base?

Mike: I think just showing everybody what we’re doing from start to finish is a big part of that. It’s one thing to show somebody a final product but it gets them engaged when you’re showing them little pieces here and making them wait for the final, the final ending.

Brad: It makes them a part of it, right?

Mike: It does, it brings them around, makes them part of the build, part of the process, and I think it’s exciting.

Brad: Yes, I think it is too, and they are killing it on social so if you guys are into cars and like custom builds, get over here and watch these guys. They are doing a great job. Hey, thanks for your time.

Mike: You’re welcome.

Brad: I really appreciate it.

Mike: Thank you so much.

Brad: Congratulations on everything.

Mike: I appreciate that.

Brad: Alright.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Automotive industry, Baby boomers, Brad Besancon, car, Custom car, Digital media, DIY culture, Facebook, Hot rod, hot rod builders use social media, Human Interest, Mike Ring, SEMA, social media, Social Media & Networking, Transport, Vehicle modification, Visual arts

Are You A Polymath Like Steve Jobs? Clarity Creativity Series Part 3

by Brad Besancon


Transcript

Are You a Polymath Like Steve Jobs? It’s a Key Attribute of a Creative Person] [03:41]

Dr. Rodney Hill: Steve Jobs was a polymath, Einstein was a polymath. It’s a person that likes lots of different things. Music, Art, Science, Athletics, it could be a whole range of things.

Robert Riggs: An inquisitive person?

Dr. Hill: Very – curiosity.

Brad Besancon: I think I might be a polymath.

Dr. Hill: Yes.

Brad: That makes me feel good.

Dr. Hill: Yes, yes. Polymaths essentially come up with all the ideas because they don’t just –

Brad: Because there is not one thing they’re trying to focus on, right? They can just take in a lot.

Dr. Hill: No one they have just blinders on.

Brad: Yes.

Robert: So I mean, Brad is going to through takeaways with you in a minute but so is it important that if I want to have any chance of getting the flow on these other things, that I really ought to start thinking, just become more inquisitive and questioning things.

Dr. Hill: Yes. You need to question things but if you’re sitting at the environment, you need to look at you in particular, what sets you off? Einstein did it for 15 minutes. He would be working on something and then he would just zone for 15 minutes and everybody thought, “Oh, the old fool,” they’re nodding off and then he would come back, and he would write down all of the things that he thought of during the flow.

Brad: Interesting.

Dr. Hill: So depending on each person, has to find what sets him off. You’ve got to figure out who the people are doing the inventing, what helps them get into flow, what keeps them creative.

Brad: I mean, I think those are the key takeaways, right? Creative environment, so if you’re an employer, please think through that for your employees, especially if you have a strategic online marketing plan or social is a very part of your business – which it should be – then you need to remember that, right? And when they come to you and say, “Man, I really like a couple of days at home,” this came from reports available, you could go see how they produce more and make more money for you. If you are an employee, you need to be sure to try to figure out what your flow is, whether that’s the walk in the park or kind of zoning out, or shoot, I guess for some people it’s a nap.

Dr. Hill: It is.

Brad: Take a nap and come back and get refreshed and something. Listen to music, whatever that is.

Dr. Hill: Sometimes, you can be in a super loud environment, generally without words, like a jazz band in New Orleans, and you don’t listen to anything they’re saying but what it does, it provides this huge sound barrier of an aloneness so you can come up with a zillion ideas.

Brad: So go to a concert. Have a drink.

Dr. Hill: Just flow out while you’re in the concert.

Brad: Right, really interesting.

Robert: Okay, are you feeling the flow? We are. Rodney Hill, Dr. Rodney Hill, futurist, Texas A&M. We really appreciate you talking to us.

Brad: We really appreciate your time.

Dr. Hill: Sure, sure.

Robert: I think for a lot of people are going to walk into their balls this week, so unusual [02:56].

Brad: With those Clarity guys.

Robert: Alright, that’s – go ahead.

Dr. Hill: But one of the things too, if somebody’s looking at, we’re going to have to add more space for building at the building, or they could have a whole series of employees that are working at home. You don’t have to build a new building, you don’t have to worry about parking lot traffic, a whole range of things.

Brad: There you have it, guys.

Dr. Hill: As a matter of fact, AT&T has 40% working at home.

Robert: Wow.

Dr. Hill: Yes.

Robert: Well, there it is, the Clarity clip of the week, part 3. ending on creativity.

Brad: And you can learn it.

Robert: Yes.

Brad: Have a good one, guys.

Filed Under: Digital Marketing

How To Get Your Creative Juices Flowing – Creativity Series Part 2

by Brad Besancon

Watch Dr. Rodney Hill, Futurist Texas A&M University, explain how to get into a creative mood.

Transcript

Brad Besancon: You truly believe that creativity can be taught and there’s a lot of people–

Rodney Hill: They’re set up. People are creative and what you’re doing is you’re setting the environment for them to get into themselves.

Brad: So it’s basically that everybody has kind of a core of creativity within their brain but because they never set up the right environment…

Rodney: Right, right. Nobody’s ever going to do it.

Brad: Nobody’s ever going to do it. So let’s talk about, what is that environment? What is a good environment? I mean, you see Google with the sleep pods, if they’re with a massage therapist or something.

Robert Riggs: But the stereotype, typical thing is, I’m in the shower and voila, here it comes. So what are these environments?

Rodney: Where nobody can interrupt you, nobody is coming in, you’re in isolation and you can think.

Robert: Is it free think though, you’re not actually really thinking about the problem?

Rodney: Right. It’s free thinking and you have the associations like going to sleep at night. Your hemispheres just sort of makes, everything comes up. I think, was it Scott Fitzgerald, what makes a really creative genius is a mind that can hold two just position of ideas at the same time without you accept the both of them.

Brad: Makes sense

Rodney: Then you figure out maybe how to blend them up eventually. Minota has soundproof chambers for their scientists. When you’re coming up with an idea and you go into a set of flow, the last thing you want is somebody to come and walk up behind you, slap you on the shoulder and say, “What about 99 flip ball?” You’re broken out of it, so like if you’re in a place where there’s a lot of people, if you put on earmuffs even though they don’t have to be wired to anything; the wire could be there but no sound, the last one that they will pick on as they come in the room is the person that has the earbuds own.

Brad: They don’t want to feel like they disturbing them, right?

Rodney: Yes. The students studied late at night by themselves because nobody will bother them.

Brad: Nobody will bother them.

Robert: But Rodney, it seems to me that we live in the absolute worst environment now for not getting interrupted.

Rodney: Right, we do. Right.

Robert: With the smartphone, and so how do you turn it off? How do you isolate? How do you let stuff percolate?

Rodney: You just have to turn it off. [laughing]

Brad: [laughing] It’s amazing. It does have an off button or do not disturb but you just choose not to do that.

Rodney: That’s right. But if you can just get away from that, you’re way better off.

Robert: So you should kind of try to apply itself to the problem and then step back, go do something else and not expect that, oh, this will come up right now?

Rodney: Right, and don’t define the problem. You don’t want to because it’s like the coffee cup; if you say coffee, they’re going to design coffee cups, so like the good example is 3M and post-it notes which it was never designed to be post-it notes.

Brad: That’s right

Rodney: Somebody said, “Hey, we can use this for this and this,” and they probably sold a zillion. 3M has a policy that I think every four years, a fifth of all the products have to be new.

Brad: That’s brilliant.

Rodney: So they have to invent and come up with new products, plus they require that all of their employees bill 10% of their time to daydreaming.

Brad: That’s brilliant.

Rodney: How long a process is that? Is it a few minutes to get into that space? Is it, I got to leave my desk, go outside? What?

Rodney: It depends on the person. Samuel Adams used a purring cat, a cup of tea, and he would do that, and then it would pop into his head. I don’t get blocked anymore but if I did and I was trying to come up with something, I would listen to some 18th century music and drink five cups of tea as I wander around the house, and then I can just sit down and come up. Mozart would take long walks in the woods and then maybe listening to the Babbling Brueck and see 50 different shades of green coming through a tree. He could feel the breeze, smell the odors, then he could sit down and actually write a piece when he got back. Beethoven had to hammer around for months to come up with a piece, so it’s different–

Brad: It all depends on the individual. I mean, I know with me, it’s a whiteboard. I get in front of a whiteboard and just start drawing stuff out, whether it’s graphically or whether it’s word maps or outlines, or whatever and you just get out there and we just start, Robert and I just start talking about stuff and here it comes.

Robert: Back in writing and journalism, and television, what I thought would kill you is if you just sat and thought about it, that you just need to start and you got that first draft, and then I would walk away from the document, you walk away from the first draft and then have a different view when you came back. Is that..?

Rodney: Yes, sure. The more you can distance yourself and see things in a new eye.

Brad: Well, I think the other thing we learned too in business and talking to our clients is you always have to be ready, not necessarily in your full-fledged flow but you never know when that’s going to pop in your mind, so be ready. I had a professor one time tell me, because sometimes, my brain starts going in the middle of the night, is put a notebook and a piece of paper, a pen and paper beside and just write down whatever it is that’s got your mind going, so things like that because you never know. And then we’re in social media and we’re working with clients and they’re trying to tell their story, you never know when that moment of your story’s going to occur either so you got to be kind of ready.

Robert: Alright, so do you want to know more? Do you want a part 3? Give us a teaser, where do we go next on this?

Rodney: Who knows? Well, like about writing, Kipling used to write with blue ink and then his assistant ran out of it, and ran and got him some black ink and he goes going like, [groans] but he had a zigging idea so he started writing, and a thousand ideas came out, and he decided he wouldn’t write again unless he had black ink. It was like a post-it [00:06:21] suggestion.

Robert: Okay, hold that thought, black ink.

Brad: Go grab your black pens.

Robert: Part 3, coming up.

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