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Leonardo da Vinci and content planning

24 Sep

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I have developed content for a number of businesses as well as creating and delivering training programs (aka Instructional Design.)

Content can be for non-static websites; marketing programs or social media.

One thing became clear to me in the process. That is the importance of planning.

Having a series of plans that start with the Big Picture (see above,) is a good way to not only focus on what you are building, but also becoming ready to create and stay on track with projects.

Creativity is pure. We know that. Artists are born that way or are they? Real art is intuitive, it’s just there in moments of genius or is it?

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo (both successful businessmen) produced ‘rough’ studies before creating their masterpieces.

My friend, famed Australian artist Rodney Pople, executes a number of sketches and daubs before he knows he’s on the track.

Writers plan and signpost using a variety of methods. Chapter headings is one way to write a novel.

Having a ‘helicopter view’ of what you are trying to achieve and then implementing it is a good way to plan and build.

It can be visual or text based. I find that visual is better.

Just get it all down and make your map.

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I love it. Take it out! Part 2

22 Sep

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What was exciting about working in this environment was the chance to watch the words, art direction, talent and production all culminate in an ad campaign. I watched our agency put in a new government with a real US style campaign and I overheard the Chairman telling the future Prime Minister what he was doing wrong.

During this time I had the chance to pitch myself for a place in a highly thought of creative school. It was simply called The Copy School. I wrote a radio ad featuring myself as an ideas cowboy riding into town. I was good but I was green, ending with a Sam Elliott (Big Lebowski) narrator/Voice Over saying nice colour green. That got me over the edge and I was accepted with 10 others into this elite school. Each week we would attend an agency and be hands on trained by the top CD’s who would give us a practical assignment … an ad to write.

One of them, a man who went on to become a best selling author quoted Dr Samuel Johnson as saying ‘What doth please the mightly, do strike out.’ Dr Johnson or his biographer Boswell. I think he took some paraphrasing liberties there but I got the message.

What we love. What we think is sparkling copy. What we think is clever may not be right for the product or the audience. David Ogilvy was tight on the rules of writing.

It’s good to keep that in mind and not be married to our words.

It’s a lesson I never forgot.

Oscar Wilde famously quipped:

I worked very hard today. This morning I put in a comma and this afternoon I took it out.

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I said just follow the lesson plan

17 Sep

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I’ve been a trainer/teacher for quite some time. I’m also an instructional designer which is a fancy, schmancy way of saying I write training courses.

I work online (Learning Management Systems) and in the classroom. I find both interesting and sometimes exciting. Sometimes I leave a training session and I feel alive, electric.

And I must also say that I get great feedback on my training sessions. If I don’t beat my own drum who else is going to?

Now I respect lesson plans and facilitator guides > I write quite a few. But do I follow them? Sometimes yes and sometimes no.

Like everything in life it’s vital to get a message across. How? With humour. Surprise. Coming out of left field (that must be a baseball expression?)

Once I caught myself rambling on … one of the participants eyes blinked too many times. Someone up the back stifled a yawn.

‘Blah, blah, blah, blah.’ I said that out aloud. ‘Blah, blah, blah, blah. Is that what I’m beginning to sound like?’ I already knew the answer.

When your delivering training … keep them interested. In the palm of your hand. Like they don’t know what’s coming next.

But always bring it back to your objective … teaching people.

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Working with a genius

15 Sep

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I have worked for a couple of people who could be termed geniuses. They are unique in the business world and like fire, often can’t be tamed.

Geniuses are innovators who continually change whatever it is their doing in their business, even when it would appear to us normal people that things were going well.

Geniuses are restless and highly inspiring.

They can also be maddeningly difficult. They do things that drive the process driven among us quite crazy. They can be downright demanding and sometimes over critical. I believe that Picasso wasn’t easy going. Look at his eyes.

But geniuses change things. They also take risks that can be un calculated.

How do we manage a genius (we manage both up and down?)

Can we tailor our personalities and expectations so that the future will come and we won’t go crazy in the process?

In the presence of real genius we do just that. It takes time.

But don’t worry … there’s not many around.

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Lessons in marketing from a window cleaner

10 Sep

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Almost everyday, when I’m driving, I stop at some major traffic lights. At these lights there’s a guy who washes windows for spare change. Half Aboriginal and half Italian, his name is Maurice and he’s a landmark. The first time I saw him I was amazed at his outfit; sometimes a pirate; sometimes a mad hatter … all kinds of get ups.

He decorates the poles the traffic lights are up on with teddy bears and christmas trees, always different depending on the season and what takes his fancy.

I told him that he was the best marketer I’d come across. He even hands out handwritten gift certificates. Maurice takes his business seriously and from the car horns beeping at him and drivers waving he’s very popular and well known. 

He told me once that the boss of a global mall chain said to him ‘If half my tenants were as good at marketing as you are …’

Maurice never stops. His business is micro, micro, but he doesn’t care. He runs it seriously, and he’s seriously good at it.

Running a small business is like riding a quarter horse. You steer them everyday.

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Rodie – King of Content

2 Sep

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“When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes and that is my idea.” Hemingway.

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Never too late to relate

8 Oct

A keys to effective communications is relating to people. Walking a mile in their (well you know what I’m trying to say.) This isn’t always easy. Not everyone is open, honest, friendly and fascinating. There are barriers:

Who cares?

What’s in it for me?

I can’t spare the time

I’m uncomfortable with some people

I’m nervous so I’m thinking of what to say while your talking

A lot of this behaviour is habitual and deeply ingrained in our personalities, but we can unlearn.

I like people and find life interesting. When I meet people I try to relate to them. It’s a technique I use which is very much like looking for keywords in long documents. I listen to what people say and scan. I will then link my experience to theirs adding a dash of humour and friendliness.

We are all related in some way even if it’s just that we are human.

If we start out by thinking the best of people, we will be more open to communicating and relating to them.

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