"Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way." – Anonymous
In spite of some prior blogs, I don't fancy the written manner of anything morose or macabre. I pride myself on being a little off-beat, off-color and sometimes off-kilter. I have a been accused of late of occasional lapses into obscurity and a penchant for tomfoolery. I assumed both as compliments.
I often jest and ridicule the masses, of course secretly, since most of my existence is within my own private Idaho.
My "intellectual libidinous" nature provides me the confidence that with a few exaggerated pantomime moves I can conjure the best in situational absurdity and make you love me and agree I am "one of a kind."
However, on this day the crashing realization that I had transformed into a bottom feeding parasite was never more evident. It's not my fault, the devil does walk among us.
For four days in a row, I awoke at 5:00 a.m. like the dolt I have secretly become, filled with an eager anticipation and periodicals to pass the time, then headed out the door. I arrived at the mall, still dark outside. As I neared the Apple store, hopes of buying the iPad 2 was my single-minded focus.
However, for the fourth day in a row I left without my new device in hand. Either there were too many in line in front of me (did the others stay in the mall hiding as mannequins?), not enough arrived at the stores or they were stocked with the wrong type.
Damn you Steve Jobs!
Vowing to end this charade and never to return, I slunk out the mall at 7:45 a.m. I needed a pick me up and headed to the nearest Starbucks in hopes of erasing this whole ordeal.
I'm not making this up, the line was out the door. I am not positive, but I a believe some of the patrons were my former brethren from the mall.
Mr. Jobs meet your long lost twin, Mr. Schultz.
The similarities were too striking. Like the mall, I realized we are a nation of masochists, mirroring the collective descent into the struggles of bovine.
Mooo!
With double espresso in hand, my race for redemption was rampant. I ingested the black gold in one swig, fired up the car and raced for the highway to get to a meeting in Miami, 45 miles from my current location.
You guessed it, after waiting in traffic the whole ride, I acceded at my destination 2.5 hours later.
I have waxed poetic to leaders of business about the marketing importance of tapping into tribal societies and ritual … never realizing along the way I'm at the head of the line.
Greg
Gregory Salsburg
CEO/The Big STIR
STIR-Communications
Miami | New York | London
c: (561) 386-8064
o: (305) 407-1723
e: Greg@STIR-Communications.com
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Transferring Happiness
Surrounded by family and friends in a convivial setting, my euphoric emotions were bubbling over. When it was pointed out that I seemed less like my sardonic cantankerous self, but rather at ease in a complete state of happiness, I knew any attempt to squabble such would be dismissed. Instead, I beamed my Cheshire smile and embraced the moment.
However, that was short lived. When I was asked “if they made me happy,” pointing to all at the affair, I answered with a resounding, “Absolutely not!” Silence, pain filled stares and gasps were piercing my direction for what was clearly perceived as an act of draconian nature.
I needed to explain quickly or be prepared to pick up the check for the evening’s festivities. As it turned out, both were in order. There is no one that dictates my emotions; I am responsible for all of them. That’s right, no one makes me happy or conversely sad; I am in charge of energizing each and every one.
Even if you are surrounded by numerous acts of happy occasions and people doing kind and wonderful things, this is not an instant recipe for happiness. A person first must be happy with themselves and willing to accept control of personal emotions in order move effortlessly through life’s topography.
You are in charge of your own feelings AND you are not in control of others. It is not your responsibility to make someone feel something and in truth, no one should have such power. Ever provide numerous acts of kindness only to feel your efforts were left unappreciated, or worse, not situational altering? Those are instances where you held the belief you could control the emotional universe.
Far too many are looking at others to inject a transfer of inspirational happiness in order to make it through life. There are whole industries built on this foundation. However, what is largely ignored is the necessity of self-actualization and personal emotional control. Friends, family, lovers, co-workers, bosses and even the baristas at Starbucks that know your order before you utter it, are not in control of your happiness. Be YOU and acknowledge absolute supremacy of YOU.
Greg
Gregory Salsburg
CEO/The Big STIR
STIR-Communications
Miami | New York | London
c: (561) 386-8064
o: (305) 407-1723
e: Greg@STIR-Communications.com
However, that was short lived. When I was asked “if they made me happy,” pointing to all at the affair, I answered with a resounding, “Absolutely not!” Silence, pain filled stares and gasps were piercing my direction for what was clearly perceived as an act of draconian nature.
I needed to explain quickly or be prepared to pick up the check for the evening’s festivities. As it turned out, both were in order. There is no one that dictates my emotions; I am responsible for all of them. That’s right, no one makes me happy or conversely sad; I am in charge of energizing each and every one.
Even if you are surrounded by numerous acts of happy occasions and people doing kind and wonderful things, this is not an instant recipe for happiness. A person first must be happy with themselves and willing to accept control of personal emotions in order move effortlessly through life’s topography.
You are in charge of your own feelings AND you are not in control of others. It is not your responsibility to make someone feel something and in truth, no one should have such power. Ever provide numerous acts of kindness only to feel your efforts were left unappreciated, or worse, not situational altering? Those are instances where you held the belief you could control the emotional universe.
Far too many are looking at others to inject a transfer of inspirational happiness in order to make it through life. There are whole industries built on this foundation. However, what is largely ignored is the necessity of self-actualization and personal emotional control. Friends, family, lovers, co-workers, bosses and even the baristas at Starbucks that know your order before you utter it, are not in control of your happiness. Be YOU and acknowledge absolute supremacy of YOU.
Greg
Gregory Salsburg
CEO/The Big STIR
STIR-Communications
Miami | New York | London
c: (561) 386-8064
o: (305) 407-1723
e: Greg@STIR-Communications.com
Monday, March 7, 2011
Love bites!
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” - Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Romeo is known for his impressive connection to the emotion of love. His soliloquies to Juliet were bountiful, filled with engaging similes in an effort to ensure she recognized the depths of his passion. While Mrs. Browning offered numerous descriptive examples of how her love continued to swell.
Could it be, they were NOT romantics at all, but rather, were simply forced to extend themselves beyond human capacity?
To me, Romeo and Mrs. Browning were just as confused as most of us … early examples of the daunting challenge of defining something abstract.
In the businesses of marketing, a heavy emphasis of late is being placed on measuring all output. Corporation’s budgets are shrinking and scrutinized each penny intensely, and data is often the best defense for spending.
Even über CEO Jack Welch once uttered the famous quote, "I know half my advertising and public relations is crucial and working, I just don't know which half."
2007 and 2008 were the watershed years of the Ad industry. Consumerism was rampant, and so businesses were spending money to drive consumers to their stores and brands. Awareness was king.
Then we hit the skids with the financial meltdown, and the new "normal" is the economy we currently have. Marketer's now strive for tangible results and ROI, having to move towards performance media where there's a direct result and you can say, "we drove people to the store or to an e-commerce site.” Market share is now king.
What do you do when the communication vertical still doesn't have proper analytical tools? Or worse, focus is on the wrong determination?
Last week, we sat with a company that unanimously agreed on incorporating public relations into the mix. The hard to quantify measurable is important for their growth strategy, however, they simply couldn't determine at what degree the importance of “awareness” was. As such, we laid out a plan to tie our output to indicators essential to their business plans.
This simple strategy eliminated the nebulous interpreting of success. We made a "love connection."
So, in business or relationships, no matter if you "love" but are not "in love" or you "like" but don't really "like-like" or, if as Mrs. Browning suggests you will love deeper in death, I say it all works. As long as you and your recipient know what you really feel and agree on the key performance indicators.
Or, maybe Mrs. Browning realized it will take many lifetimes to fix this ...
Greg
Gregory Salsburg
CEO/The Big STIR
STIR-Communications
Miami | New York | London
c: (561) 386-8064
o: (305) 407-1723
e: Greg@STIR-Communications.com
Romeo is known for his impressive connection to the emotion of love. His soliloquies to Juliet were bountiful, filled with engaging similes in an effort to ensure she recognized the depths of his passion. While Mrs. Browning offered numerous descriptive examples of how her love continued to swell.
Could it be, they were NOT romantics at all, but rather, were simply forced to extend themselves beyond human capacity?
To me, Romeo and Mrs. Browning were just as confused as most of us … early examples of the daunting challenge of defining something abstract.
In the businesses of marketing, a heavy emphasis of late is being placed on measuring all output. Corporation’s budgets are shrinking and scrutinized each penny intensely, and data is often the best defense for spending.
Even über CEO Jack Welch once uttered the famous quote, "I know half my advertising and public relations is crucial and working, I just don't know which half."
2007 and 2008 were the watershed years of the Ad industry. Consumerism was rampant, and so businesses were spending money to drive consumers to their stores and brands. Awareness was king.
Then we hit the skids with the financial meltdown, and the new "normal" is the economy we currently have. Marketer's now strive for tangible results and ROI, having to move towards performance media where there's a direct result and you can say, "we drove people to the store or to an e-commerce site.” Market share is now king.
What do you do when the communication vertical still doesn't have proper analytical tools? Or worse, focus is on the wrong determination?
Last week, we sat with a company that unanimously agreed on incorporating public relations into the mix. The hard to quantify measurable is important for their growth strategy, however, they simply couldn't determine at what degree the importance of “awareness” was. As such, we laid out a plan to tie our output to indicators essential to their business plans.
This simple strategy eliminated the nebulous interpreting of success. We made a "love connection."
So, in business or relationships, no matter if you "love" but are not "in love" or you "like" but don't really "like-like" or, if as Mrs. Browning suggests you will love deeper in death, I say it all works. As long as you and your recipient know what you really feel and agree on the key performance indicators.
Or, maybe Mrs. Browning realized it will take many lifetimes to fix this ...
Greg
Gregory Salsburg
CEO/The Big STIR
STIR-Communications
Miami | New York | London
c: (561) 386-8064
o: (305) 407-1723
e: Greg@STIR-Communications.com
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