A friend of mine once earned black daggers of death from my eyes when he introduced me to a group of witty and clever people as, "a really funny guy". What followed was the sound of crickets as every eye turned to watch me be funny.
This week I confessed to my friend Taymar Pixley that I was really blocked when it came to writing content for my soon to be re-launched website. After all, my site has to represent me to a decidedly critical group of clever and witty people. It has to say just the right things about the leading edge communications we're exploring and the down to earth values of craftsmanship and service we believe in. AAACK! Do you see what I mean? What it comes down to is that I don't want to explain it I just want to do it!
BUT - business executives don't know what I know about how to create and use the medium. So how do I tell my story to them? What the heck AM I doing anyway? I couldn't find my bearings on ground that I should and DO know very well. I was like Daniel Boone. Not exactly lost but a might bewildered for a few days.
Then I got a call from a client who was interested in what I had to say about new media applications or, "programs" as I like to describe them. I found myself warming to the task of elaborating how some simple media programs could solve several important problems for this company. They could improve communications with their sales staff. They could cut down middle management time in meetings while increasing their effectiveness. They could screen job applicants and save money on employee training, demonstrate their product benefits to their member clients, easily update their materials and adjust their strategies at will. And they could use their on-line presence to deliver different levels of service both internally and externally in an on-demand consumer world.
When I had finished, the client said, "I'll be losing sleep thinking about all those things this weekend." I had showed him the answers as if they were magic. He saw that everything I told him was true, even though his company had never done anything like it before. His realization was the answer to my dilemma. It's magic.
It's magic that makes you sexy when you aren't even trying to look good. It's magic when we take a fuzzy concept from a client and manifest it into a sharply tuned marketing program or business solution.
There are several people I consult for their explanations about how media works. Doc Searls and Patrick Gregston are two fine examples of those who can catch lightning in a bottle. But tonight I am still bogged down in the pedestrian work of explaining myself and how I work. Because it's magic that develops my creative energy and I can't really explain how it happens. I only know that the Muse is fleeting and documenting magic isn't really very sexy at all.
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1 comment:
I'm so right there with you. It's funny, it's like we are living parallel lives. I have been gnashing my teeth trying to come up with copy for my site redesign. I think what makes writing copy for the web so difficult is the fear that somebody is actually going to read it.
Well John, we can just put those fears aside. People only skim the text anymore anyway. What's really important is that it looks good, and your web designer is taking care of that, so just slap a few words together and move on to more enjoyable tasks, like blogging about it, and putting together your next 5 minute media manager. And I'll try to do the same...ack!
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