Workshops! – Content Strategy & More
*image from In Good Company website announcing the workshop this week.
I just gave my first workshop since returning to NY in October of last year and I’m revved up now to give more.
What is it?
What’s Your Story? Content Strategy for Brands and People
Course Description:
Brands are like people – with personalities, values, interests, and a unique manner of communicating. In this workshop we will start to identify who you are as a brand (whether an individual or company) and chart a course of communicating those values to the world through content. You will come away with a better handle on how to best use powerful socialnetworking tools from Facebook to Twitter to Flickr to Linkedin to blogging software. Start making your audience pay attention to what you have to say. Build dialogue, build trust, build business.
A Few Testimonials:
“Our meeting left me walking away with a totally new perspective of what I do and how I do…the story aspect is a very enriching take, which I really had not taken the time to fully realize and explore its value. The bike story and execution is a great example.”
-Sharon Gray, Fashikon
“The attendees got a lot out of the experience – they can’t wait to have you back!”
- Victoria Clark, Event Manager, IGC
“The only consistent comment we got was MORE PLEASE!”
-Adelaide Lancaster, Partner, IGC
The feeling is mutual.
It’s been a fantastic year getting Show Love up and off the ground. My partner and I produce social content for lovable companies that consists of documentary-style visually arresting video stories, text and creative direction. In full-scale projects, we work with illustrators, graphic designers, and web designers to create an optimal setting and tone for a brand’s continued narrative throughout the social universe. We’re like a creative team in an ad agency but for a specific kind of progressive, ethical business.
But I absolutely love to teach and give workshops. Workshops range from large to small, from lecture to facilitating brain storming sessions and mind mapping exercises that solve challenges of communication and narrative intent.
I taught Brand Strategy to 2nd year advertising students and a course on Trend Research and Insights to 2nd year Fashion Marketing Students at the Istituto Europeo de Design in Barcelona, Ethnography to corporate clients in Barcelona, Social Content in Paris, and so on. That was Europe. Now back in the states, and invigorated by the reception from this week’s workshop, I would like to do more.
If you’re interested and think I can help you, please get in touch. I will be posting updates on making this available to more people but I am available for one-on-ones which are the most effective way to dive deep. To make it cost effective, I can do small groups where we can focus on everyone and have everyone learn from each others input.
Here’s my bio.
Check out Show Love LLC including our biggest victory yet, a short story about a unique bike shop that has surpassed 280k views.
Check out In Good Company for co-working space and more. I couldn’t recommend them more.
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Back to Native American Values: Take a look at Native American Women
When Show Love spent a few days last week at Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture (home of Blue Hill restaurant deliciousness) as the official videographers of the Young Farmer’s Conference, we spoke to 3 Native Americans who had come from 3 tribes, all working with the Food Corps an initiative to teach kids about healthy food. They came from three tribes: the White Mountain Apache, the Santa Domingo Pueblo, and the Hopi, all in the Southwest. I spoke to them at length and was incredibly moved by their work to instill Native American values in the youths of their tribes and teach sustainable farming – working with and not against nature as they’ve done for thousands of years (and which it seems, we’re just learning). The time feels really ripe to bring the U.S. back full circle to its original values that we so desperately need today. I went back to Women Make Movies site and found this series on promotion through the end of December:
“Native: Through the Eyes of Indigenous Women” includes
‘TOXIC TRESPASS, which covers environmental racism impacting native communities, CLUB NATIVE and MOHAWK GIRLS, two coming of age identity films by the acclaimed Mohawk director, Tracey Deer; the urgent and heartbreaking FINDING DAWN on the human rights crisis of aboriginal femicide; the spirited Southwestern artists’ film THE DESERT IS NO LADY, and a provocative cultural look called NAVAJO TALKING PICTURE.’
Check it out here
and read about the White Mountain Apache, the Santa Domingo Pueblo, and the Hopi tribe.
*Image from the film Finding Dawn.
Here are some more pictures from our time at the Young Farmers Conference. To learn more about Show Love, social content for lovable companies, read our press release here.
My First Creative Morning: Rainbow Parade
This was my first time at Creative Mornings, the monthly talks started by Swiss Miss design blogger Tina Roth Eisenberg. I’ve been following Swiss Miss for a few years now and her blog always has useful tips for design lovers who love technology like you and me. The talk was by graphic designer and “lucky-so-and-so” blogger Jessi Arrington.
I felt like a “lucky-so-and-so” myself because the talk was all about bright color. The talk itself was short and sweet but the rainbow parade around DUMBO that ensued was the best Friday eye-opener you could imagine. When I got home, my husband asked me if I was drunk. THAT’S how energizing it was.
Takeaways from the talk were as follows:
- Think “Why Not?” instead of “Why?
This helped confirm my decision to take that color theory class at SVA that I’ve been wanting to take (coincidence) even though I think I should be taking more businessy classes; I REALLY WANT TO TAKE THIS CLASS so f*** it, I’m gonna. She referenced Steve Jobs homecoming speech and his calligraphy classes as a ‘you never know where this can lead’ example.
- Don’t be glib and standoffish, be empathetic and participate.
She said this in her own way but the basic message is ‘get the chip of your shoulder and connect with people.’ Participate for crissakes. Don’t put baby (meaning you) in the corner.
and last,
- Do the thing that makes you tick. Don’t do what you think others expect of you as a substitute for the real thing. It’s okay to be yourself. Really. It is.
Cindy Gallop said something along these lines at Web 2.0 in September and my old myspace page has a list of convictions that expand on the theme. Back story: I was in a hotel room int he 9th arrondisement in Paris in October 2006 when it hit me that I just had to listen to myself (I can’t believe I’m linking to this but here goes). I decided then and there that I needed to hightail it out of New York and move to Paris to write a novel, which is exactly what I did 3 months later. (Now, 5 years later, I’m married with a finished novel that I love more than anything I’ve ever done – and back in NYC ready to push it into an agents arms!)
Here are some photos of this morning and then, since we’re always work-first at What Women Make, my favorite pick from Jessi’s graphic design work.
First, the parade:
Then my favorite graphic design work of Jessi’s I would have to say are her invitations:
Some of the really handy Swiss Miss stuff is here (but it’s all great).
Jessi Arrington’s blog: Lucky-so-and-so.
If you’re a creative in New York, check out the schedule for Creative Mornings.
Friday Diary – Women: Inspiration & Enterprise Symposium Led by Arianna Huffington
…as well as Donna Karan, trailblazing fashion designer, and Sarah Brown, the wife of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and a prominent female business owner in the UK. (the PR firm Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications, known for integrity PR).
September 18 – 19, 2011
Location Unknown for Day 1, Day 2 at 82Mercer
New York, NY
It starts with Enterprise Day (Sept 18) on the topics of Fundraising, Film, Fashion, & Social Media and then Inspiration Day (Sept 19) with panel across a broad spectrum of timely topics including the “green revolution”. What an exciting event for women to hear from those that came before them – and from such an eclectic lineup of leaders. I hope this draws an eclectic, diverse group of women beyond media as well. I’m so happy this is happening in New York. WIE was started by June Sarpong (UK presenter) and Dee Poku (branding and comm with strong film background, member of the British Academy) last year. Scroll to bottom for discount.
Here’s video coverage of last year’s event with a truly illustrious (star-studded to be frank) line-up indeed:
WIE Symposium from WIE on Vimeo.
Go to the WIE website for more and then go to women2.0 to receive a discount code.
0 CommentsThe Female Economy: Notes From a Conference
Thought I’d show you the palm of my hand from the RethinkHer conference last month. Some interesting stuff to help you along which echoed a lot of what I’ve been proselytizing in innovation for years. But here it is. Just the facts ma’am.
Systematizing Cultures: measures, controls market, controls organization, works in hierarchy. Cornerstone of companies which produce and sell systems. e.g. finance, tech, auto industry. Most big corporations work this way.
Empathetic Cultures: People + Ideas => What’s Being Sold. Organization flat. Fosters intuition. Nurtures ideas.
Declaration —> “There is a new economy, the Female Economy.”
Systematizing Cultures impress with a show of strength.
“World’s favorite airline”
“Ultimate driving machine”
Biggest, Best are highly motivating in a system culture. Not so in empathetic cultures where CONNECTING and NETWORKING are what motivates.
Key Characteristics
(as far as i’m concerned, also key characteristics of contemporary entrepreneurship, future thinking)
- Altruism
(shared concerns, other-focused)
- Connecting
(people, ideas)
- Strong Aesthetic
(women = heightened sensory perception. Women drawn to environments that feel welcoming, safe, aesthetic.)
- Creating Order
(things that feel in good order reduce complexity in decision making, create a context that feels comfortable, saves time.)
Ying and Yang
MALE SOCIAL CURRENCY vs FEMALE SOCIAL CURRENCY
jokes, factoids, sports —- gossip, real life, observation
(American, traditional)
MALE SUBJECT MATTER vs FEMALE SUBJECT MATTER
things, facts — people, feelings
MALE PATTERN vs FEMALE PATTERN
escalation, exaggeration — getting beneath and under, granular, detail
MALE FORM vs FEMALE FORM
soundbites, headlines — detail, nuance, texture
UNSPOKEN OUTCOME, MALE vs FEMALE
establish status by competing — build closeness by sharing (find similarity)
Leadership, Talent, and Markets…
- Make sure you don’t have little white male soldiers all in a row as your entire company board! because..
- Realize there that the world over there are way more women graduating then men from universities including in China, Iran, the U.S., and Europe so let your recruitment reflect that monumental change.
- Approximately 80% of all purchases including auto, finance, and gaming are made by women, not men. Contrary to popular belief, women don’t just buy the food, clothing, and design products.
- Female income: 13 Trillion in 2009. 18 Trillion by 2014.
- 40% of the University degrees globally are held by men. 80% of the jobs lost in the U.S. recession have been lost by men (in manufacturing mostly). Only 20% of the jobs currently being created in the EU are going to men.
- This headline from the Economist, “Forget China, India, and the Internet, Economic Growth is driven by women.”
- this nice little slogan: rapport talk instead of report talk
- The number of women making more than 100,000 has tripled in the last decade.
- “Stop trying to fix the women… recognize the women that women have become.” -Avivah Wittenberg-Cox
- ‘It’s hard to bring out the best of female creativity in an all male-dominated ad agency.’ – Michele Miller, Wonderbranding
- “Not a single woman in San Francisco came to portfolio night (where recent art director grads go to show their work to agencies) last year!” – Jesus Alonso, adwomen.org
- Women are the greatest emerging market in the history of the planet. – Newsweek
- ‘Maybe aspiration is not always all that attractive. If you see people in an ad that makes you feel you would like the people or are like the people, you react more favorably than seeing so-called aspirational people that make you feel you don’t belong.’ – Marti Barletta
- ‘Men like to get the important things taken care of. Women like to get the important things taken care of and more in order to get it right.’ – Marti Barletta
-Chauncey Zalkin
*HBR were the source of a lot of stats. Not all.
Two Kinds of Stories: The Page and The Screen
I’m been working on a long, big, involved writing project since January 2007. And not one that can be done via tweets, posts, or powerpoint but instead in chapters employing reams and reams of paper crisscrossed into piles and filed with ink markings.
I started in Paris and two years later ended up in Barcelona in a markedly less charged, less anxious environment than New York. I grew my hair long, stopped getting highlights. I stopped wearing high heels and stopped shopping on Saturdays. (Shopping-as-hobby in euros and without a corporate paycheck, in a markedly less consumerist environment, feels absurd). I live in an ancient building with uneven stairs. Wearing heels would be impractical to say the least. . Instead, I’ve become quite the chefette. Fresh fish at Boqueria (and later Santa Caterina market) has led me to Google searches with alarming news of overfishing and the politics beyond my dinner table. Yikes.
But I left to cut the chatter out. To smell the sea and know thy butcher. The longer piece of writing is still not done (now it is!) but it is a living breathing thing that I will sorely miss when it is done. It’s what I do mornings. It’s my real and tangible life.
Afternoons, now back in the drink of digital and work life in the form of What Women Make and planning curriculum for teaching and workshops in branding and ethnography for the fall (done!), I am swimming deeper into digital space, a place where I find no up, down, or center, just endless self-perpetuating time. Time to infinity if you let it. As part of this, I have nestled myself deep in Twitter-land.
Sitting here in Barcelona, thinking about one of my characters, I scribbled in my notes, ‘are we all building concentric circles and burying ourselves in the middle of them?’
I began my dive into Twitter by looking for women makers online and swimming down that path I ended up finding scores upon scores of tech heroines – connectors, doers, investors, travelers, oracles – and I’m amazed at the female talent, passion, and community that’s showing it’s face.
I haven’t done that much writing outside my book ever since I started working on it but I realized this question has nothing to do with my book and everything to do with my digital observations. We are blowing bubbles of concentric circles every time we add a twitter connection. We float in our bubbles and we seek out: The Conference. Conferences seem to be a crucial oxygen seeking mission in all this. We come up for air there. After all, people want to speak, laugh, see one another, share the same carpet.
After the conference, we all go home, follow one another on twitter and go on building our concentric circles. But hopefully that’s not all.
How often do our circles land in tangibles?
When do they form intersecting points that lead to applications, products, services, marriages, babies, and all that good stuff?
They do, I know they do, but I’m interested in those stories. The ones grafted on the page of social networking that come alive in physical space.
I want even the physical space tinkerers or artisans to have a foot in both without compromising their craft.
I love this rapid evolution. As it changes life itself, I’m pleased with the slippery easy online glide. I remember when it was so much more cumbersome.
I think of what it can and will look like – the synergistic evolution going on in the ever widening half of our life that is lived online also happening in equal measure in physical space. To me, that is the ultimate and most critical pursuit.
-Chauncey Zalkin
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