Transition: At What Stage Are You?

We all go through it at one time or another in our life. For some of us, more times than we may realize. I’ve been going through a major one now for the past three years; and one before that; and one before that, and, well, you get the idea.

I recently attended a webinar hosted by my friend Peleg Top dealing with transition and creativity. Borrowing some from what Peleg presented, “Transitions can be subtle or can shake us to our core. Unless we have the tools to navigate through these challenging periods, we may find ourselves stuck and unable to move forward.

“For most of us, facing change and transition comes with much fear and anxiety. We tend to overthink the process, worrying about the unknown future and in that space we tend to forget that change has great potential for growth, innovation, and renewal. It involves developing a mindset that values flexibility, open-mindedness, and a willingness to step out of comfort zones.”

In his TED talk The Secret to Mastering Life’s Biggest Transitions, Bruce Feiler identifies three stages that represent the emotional and psychological journey we go through when we face significant changes.

This framework can apply to different types of transitions, like career changes, relationship changes, relocating to a new place, or even coping with loss.

The first stage is the long goodbye

This stage has a mix of emotions, including denial, sadness, anger, and confusion. This is a time of reflection on your experiences, your identity, the roles you played, and the expectations that will no longer be part of your life.

The key to navigating this stage is acceptance and allowing oneself to grieve for what is being lost, recognizing it as a necessary step for moving forward.

The second stage is the messy middle

This is the phase where the old has been left behind, but the new has not yet fully taken shape. This is the stage where we often encounter confusion, doubt, and questioning.

You may struggle with your sense of self, not knowing exactly who you are in the absence of the roles and identities you’ve left behind. This is a time of experimentation, making mistakes, learning, and gradually gaining clarity.

The messy middle requires patience, resilience, and the willingness to embrace the unknown as an crucial part of the transition process.

The third stage is called The New Beginning

This stage has a renewed sense of purpose, clarity, and optimism. You start to establish new routines, form new relationships, and fully engage with your new reality.

This stage is a time of growth, accomplishment, and excitement for the future. This stage  requires an open heart and mind, as well as the courage to step into the unknown with confidence.

I think I must still have one foot in the Messy Middle and the other foot in the New Beginning. However, it’s not uncommon for us to feel a presence in all three.

Next up in the webinar was a discussion of values and its two types, namely Life and Operational. Life values are those we have for the long term, what we want out of life. Operational values are those we have to attain our long term values. These traits help us get through the transitions we encounter. My three main ones are adaptability, curiosity and creativity.

From a list of about thirty or more Operational values, we were asked to pick six that resonate with us. My six: Flexibility, Competency, Honesty, Humor, Creativity and Discipline. I then narrowed these down to three that meant the most to me, namely Honesty, Humor and Creativity. Out of these, I chose Creativity, which really resonates with me.

My six Life values are: Happiness, Health, Family, Wealth, Wisdom and Fellowship. The three meaning the most to me are Happiness, Health and Fellowship, with Happiness being the one truly resonating with me.

Creativity is very important to me because it resonates with my internal being. It can lead to better times. Happiness can happen by way of creativity and flexibility. I need to further explore how best I can attain true happiness.

Borrowing again from Peleg’s webinar about creativity’s role in transition, Creativity can support us in every stage of change, offering comfort in the Long Goodbye, guidance in the Messy Middle, and celebration in the New Beginning.

Creativity has the potential  to become your true guide, Peleg says, lighting the way forward as you step into the unknown, ready for change, growing stronger and more adaptable with every transition.

So no matter what stage of change you are meeting yourself in these days, Peleg suggests your creativity is a powerful ally in this journey. Your creativity can build bridges over obstacles, turning challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation.

He concludes by saying that as you embrace your creativity as your guide, you will discover that within you lies the power to face any change, to navigate through any transition, and to emerge on the other side ready to paint the canvas of your life with the vibrant colors of your newfound insights.

Without creativity my life would be truly without merit. When I tap into my creativity, it’s like I’m tapping into my seventh sense, a new form of being. It helps me on my life’s journey to become more than I can on my own. It’s a living, breathing, vital part of my soul. It’s up to me to keep it alive.

How is creativity playing a part in your life? Have you embraced it as a vital partner?

 

Note: This post was previously published in Joe’s Journey.

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for personal insights on life and its detours.

And, check out various creative selections from ideasnmore.net.

Jolan tru!

Spring into Spring with These Quotes

Creativity can be found in some surprising places. From advertising and computer science to art and statistics. It’s what we do with it that matters. Below are various quotes from different people expressing a feeling or an observation about how creativity has impacted them in some way, directly and indirectly. Enjoy the quotes for March as we spring into Spring.

Play by the rules, but be ferocious. — Phil Knight, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Many persons have an idea that one cannot be in business and lead an upright life, whereas the truth is that no one succeeds in business to any great extent, who misleads or misrepresents. — John Wanamaker, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

To me, mathematics, computer science, and the arts are insanely related. They’re all creative expressions. – Sebastian Thrun

I have learned that trying to guess what the boss or the client wants is the most debilitating of all influences in the creation of good advertising. — Leo Burnett, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

We pay just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats. Go ahead and fail. But fail with wit, fail with grace, fail with style. A mediocre failure is as insufferable as a mediocre success. — Bruce Barton, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Change is inevitable. Growth is optional. — John C. Maxwell

Be a voice, not an echo. — Anonymous

Advertising, to be successful, must understand or anticipate basic human needs and wants and interpret available goods and services in terms of their want-satisfying abilities. This is the very opposite of manipulation. — Charles H. Sandage, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Consumers are statistics. Customers are people. — Stanley Marcus, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

No moral, no message, no prophetic tract, just a simple statement of fact: For civilization to survive, the human race has to remain civilized. ~ Rod Serling

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for personal insights on life and its detours.

And, check out creative selections from ideasnmore.net.

Jolan tru!

Kick Start Your Creativity

Some times we all need a kick in the pants to get our creative juices to start flowing. Perhaps the attachments in this post will help in that regard. I wrote these years ago in preparation for some speaking engagements. Given their nature, I’d bet they’re still valid today.

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for personal insights on life and its detours.

And, check out creative selections from ideasnmore.net.

Jolan tru!

 

It’s that time of the month again . . .

. . . when we see and read what others have said that made an impact. May these quotes bring about an impact for you as well. Enjoy!

 

All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level. — William Bernbach, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. ― Thomas Alva Edison

Nothing comes merely by thinking about it. — John Wanamaker, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief. – Gerry Spence

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. – George Washington Carver

Reading, conversation, environment, culture, heroes, mentors, nature—all are lottery tickets for creativity. Scratch away at them and you’ll find out how big a prize you’ve won. – Twyla Tharp

Chaos is the only thing that honestly wants you to grow. The only friend who really helps you be creative. — Dan Wieden, member Advertising Hall of Fame

What we are doing is satisfying the American public. That’s our job. I always say we have to give most of the people what they want most of the time. That’s what they expect from us. — William Paley, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Advertising is what you do when you can’t go see somebody. That’s all it is. — Fairfax Cone, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. – Arthur C. Clarke

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for personal insights on life and its detours.

And, check out creative selections from ideasnmore.net.

Jolan tru!

Creativity: Key Driver to Profitability in B2B Advertising

In my continuing effort to share pertinent information regarding the value that creativity plays in today’s marketplace, I share the following interview from LinkedIn as it relates to business-to-business advertising.

As part of a multi-year partnership between LinkedIn and Cannes Lions, LinkedIn along with its think tank, the B2B Institute, worked with the Cannes Lions as a strategic thought partner to develop the Creative B2B Lions Awards. Below are excerpts from a LinkedIn interview with Tyrona Heath, Director of Marketing Engagement at LinkedIn’s B2B Institute. It is aimed at celebrating and championing B2B excellence to drive creativity and excitement amongst B2B brands, marketers, and advertisers.

Summary:

  • Creativity is a key driver of profitability in B2B marketing and plays a crucial role in building brand recognition, differentiation, and market share
  • B2B advertising is facing a crisis of creativity, with research showing that 75% of B2B ads receive a low effectiveness rating
  • B2B brand building has a massive untapped opportunity, with significant growth potential in the marketing services industry

When you talk about creativity in B2B, it can feel abstract. Can you explain it in a tangible and relatable way?

For a long time, people have associated B2B with purely business-related content, detached from the principles that influence decision-making. However, B2B content is consumed by human decision-makers who are influenced by the same factors as any other audience. Emotion, storytelling, music, characters, and persuasive techniques are all necessary in B2B to inspire decision-making. Ultimately, it’s about creating a memorable brand that stands out and drives effective outcomes, with creativity at the center.

Is B2B advertising facing a crisis of creativity? And if so, how did we get here?

In the case of B2B advertising, there is a significant opportunity for improvement. Research indicates that the majority of B2B ads lack memorability and effectiveness. According to an analysis with our creative effectiveness partner, System1, a staggering 75% of B2B ads received a low effectiveness rating of one star out of five. These ads failed to leave a lasting impression, effectively communicate the message, or evoke an emotional response. This means they were not effective in building brand awareness or generating a return on investment.

How do you sell the need for brand building and creativity to senior marketers or budget holders?

That’s a great question, and it relates to our previous discussion about marketing to the CFO. Ogilvy Rory Sutherland once compared discussing brand with a finance director to talking about the healing power of crystals to a head surgeon. To finance-focused individuals, brand discussions may come across as fluffy and irrelevant. The best ads are effective because they better encode an association in a buyer’s memory, and brand building is one of the most powerful levers for driving business growth by building memories. We need to shift our mindset to effectively communicate the connection and value of brand building and creativity.

Continue reading →

Another Super Bowl Sunday in the Books

Well, another Super Sunday has come and gone and millions of dollars spent on items promoted to us in trying to have us believe that we need them. Most were well intended and some were pretty good. Others were a waste of money and/or talent.

The game itself even delivered a stomach-churner of an event in that the winner wasn’t known until the very last in a rare overtime. The money spent on this year’s Super Bowl XVIII was astronomical as was the price of admission. The money spent on the commercials was a tidy sum as well.

While I didn’t take time to rank the commercials I saw, I devised a list of those I thought memorable, meaning mostly positive and creative. Those I didn’t think so much of didn’t make the list, with one exception.

All told, I selected thirty spots that impressed me for one reason or another. They are listed below in no order of preference mostly in the order of appearance.

They are:

Wicked
He Gets us
Lindt
Apartments.com
Ultra-Messi
BMW
State Farm-Arnold
Nerds
Oreo
E-trade
Hellman’s
Reese’s
Jewish Hate
Dunkin
Google
Poppi
Etsy
Pluto TV
Paramount plus
Uber eats
Pfizer
Bud Light
Doritos
Volkswagen
If
HEB
United
Kia
Microsoft Copilot
Door Dash

The one exception to my list of memorable spots was indeed memorable but for the wrong reason. I’m still trying to erase it from my memory. “Dude Wipes” presented a supposedly better way to go to the bathroom, being a substitute for toilet paper. While not gross or horrendous in execution, I found it embarrassingly stupid. I won’t dwell on it because that would be a waste of virtual paper.

The nail-biter game and mostly interesting and humorous commercials made for a pleasant experience this year. Let’s hope next year’s event will be equally entertaining.

A post script here: It’s not lost on me that today is Fat Tuesday, aka Mardis Gras. May your celebrations be rich in revitalization of spirit and, for those of us preparing for Lent, be true to yourself and your inner being so that you can enjoy a more prosperous and fulfilling life.

And now, laissez les bons temps rouler!

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Ideasnmoreblog, for a different kind of playground for creativity, innovation and inspiring stuff.

And, check out various creative selections from ideasnmore.net.

Jolan tru!

Quotes – From Lee Clow’s Beard to Virginia Woolf

Leading off 2024 is this list of various quotes from those luminaries in and out of the advertising field. The quotes were selected by me from a variety of sources for the purposes of motivation, incitefullness and humor, among other things. Hope you get something out of them!

 

If you have a dream, don’t let anybody take it away. And you always believe that the impossible is always possible —Selena Quintanilla, singer-songwriter, businessperson, actor, fashion designer

Good advertising is written from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions, it rarely moves anyone. — Fairfax M. Cone, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Good agencies understand advertising’s role within the four Ps. Great ones earn the right to influence the other three. — Lee Clow’s Beard

There is no such thing as ‘soft sell’ and ‘hard sell.’ There is only ‘smart sell’ and ‘stupid sell.’ — Charles H. Brower, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Everything is reduced to facts and figures but the things that count. — George Gallup, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope, and the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable. — John E. Kennedy, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Meetings are all too often the burial grounds of great ideas. — Keith Reinhard, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Creativity is no longer about grabbing attention or raising consumer awareness. Its goal is to remind consumers about what is fundamental and gratifying about a brand. — Peter A. Georgescu, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Security is mostly a superstition… Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. – Helen Keller

SO LONG AS YOU WRITE WHAT YOU WISH TO WRITE, THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS; AND WHETHER IT MATTERS FOR AGES OR ONLY FOR HOURS, NOBODY CAN SAY. — VIRGINIA WOOLF

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for personal insights on life and its detours.

And, check out creative selections from my website.

Jolan tru!

Special Quotes and a Christmas Gift, too

This being the week before Christmas I thought it appropriate to present some special quotes for this month and to end the list with a Christmas thought. Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays!

Neither wisdom nor good will is now dominant. Hope lies in dreams, in imagination and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality. – Jonas Salk

Some questions don’t have answers, which is a terribly difficult lesson to learn. — Katharine Graham, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

I want to put a ding in the universe. – Steve Jobs

Let’s gear our advertising to sell goods, but let’s recognize also that advertising has a broad social responsibility. — Leo Burnett, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else’s advertising. — David Ogilvy, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

The heart of creativity is discipline. — William Bernbach, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Like the musical score, a mission statement is only as good as the performance it inspires. — Keith Reinhard, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. — David Ogilvy, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

In writing advertising it must always be kept in mind that the customer often knows more about the goods than the advertising writers because they have had experience in buying them, and any seeming deception in a statement is costly, not only in the expense of the advertising but in the detrimental effect produced upon the customer, who believes she has been misled. — John Wanamaker, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Christmas is more than barging up and down department store aisles and pushing people out of the way. Christmas is another thing finer than that. Richer, finer, truer, and it should come with patience and love, charity, compassion. ~ Rod Serling

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for personal insights on life and its detours.

And, check out creative selections from my website.

Jolan tru!

At the Intersection of Curiosity and Creativity

Seems like I’ve run across a number of articles over the past month or so dealing with a variety of topics in the realm of creativity. This posting is no different, and, yet, it is, uh, different. While many may find it difficult to define what creativity is, many will no doubt have an easy time knowing about curiosity. While everyone is curious, not everyone sees themselves as creative. Well, maybe this post will alter your perspective.

An article I recently came across by Helge Tennø discusses what happens at the intersection of creativity and curiosity, and what doesn’t happen.

He states the reason we struggle to come up with original ideas is not for a lack of creativity but a lack of curiosity.

“Every year we go into the same room with the same information and the same questions .. what do you think happens? Every year we come out with the same ideas” — frustrated workshop facilitator.

Creativity is limited to what we already know, it is only the re-combination of available information and experience. Creativity is not magic, it doesn’t produce ideas out of thin air.

In addition, most competitors think the same way, because they use the same methods and the same questions to find the same insights.

Outperforming your competition is not as much about who is the most creative or who has the deepest data. It’s as much about who can see something nobody else can.

Currently the trend is to apply a lot of data to buy our way out of this problem. Hoping that the machine will magically see connections our human brains can’t.

But machines are only reflections of our own values, ideas and biases. If we are staring down one rabbit hole the machine will only help us dig deeper.

We should therefore redesign our creative workshops. From combining information into ideas, to exploring questions we need to ask and information we don’t have.

There is a simple way to unlock this behavior: just ask “what has to be true for x to be true”, where x is your strategy, an existing product, something you are already doing .. anything.

One of the most productive ways to learn something new is experimentation.

The purpose of an experiment is not to confirm that you are correct (sometimes it is), but it should most often be used to surprise you.

To help you learn something that you didn’t know two minutes prior.

And the way to do that is to reduce the cost of an experiment to almost zero (because if experiments are expensive the organization will more likely prioritize experiments confirming their existing knowledge).

“The real measure of success is the number of experiments that can be crowded into 24 hours.” — Thomas Alva Edison

With cheap and fast experiments the company can explore hypotheses and assumptions they never tested before, learn new things, capture new insights, venture into new areas.

With their new learnings they can combine both information they never had before with questions they never asked before.

“Researchers suggest it is uncertainty, or when you think you know something then discover you don’t, that leads to curiosity and learning outcomes.” — Celeste Kidd, assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley.

In short:

We only know what we know, and we know very little. (But we know a lot more than we think we do.)

We need to shift our focus from creativity to insights and questions. And experimentation is a low hanging fruit and one of the fastest tracks we can use to get us there.

Recommended places to start your experimentation journey:

(4). Experimentation works, Stefan H. Thomke

(5). How managers can build a culture of experimentation, Frank V. Cespedes and Neil Hoyne

(6). Why Business Schools Need to Teach Experimentation, by Elizabeth R. Tenney, Elaine Costa, and Ruchi M. Watson

(7). Get Comfortable Breaking Your Product, Rik Higham

 

While I agree with most of what the author states, creativity should always embrace insights and questions. Creativity is not borne out of thin air but rather from the insights and experiences we have within us. Curiosity can definitely spur on creativity and vice versa.

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for personal insights on life and its detours.

And, check out creative selections from my website.

Jolan tru!

From Rod Serling to Frank Lloyd Wright

Here they are again, quotes for November this time. As usual they represent a variety of viewpoints from various folks, some better known than others. Enjoy!

 

The writer’s role is to menace the public’s conscience. He must have a position, a point of view. He must see the arts as a vehicle of social criticism and he must focus on the issues of his time. — Rod Serling

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance. — Bruce Barton, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Advertising promotes that divine discontent which makes people strive to improve their economic status. — Ralph Starr Butler, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Brands that keep us invisible to appease anti-LGBTQ activists … are missing a future generation of consumers and employees who demand that brands include LGBTQ people and other diverse communities in authentic and organic ways. — Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD’s president and CEO, as quoted by MediaPost Communications

It is easier to tone down a wild idea than to think up a new one. — Alex Osborne, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Violence does not spring from a vacuum. It’s born out of other men’s violence. It gets nurtured and it grows in a soil of prejudice and of hate and of bigotry. ~Rod Serling

Fun without sell gets nowhere, but sell without fun tends to become obnoxious. — Leo Burnett, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

An important idea not communicated persuasively is like having no idea at all. — William Bernbach, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

When we are too timid to risk failure, we reduce the opportunities to succeed. And we eliminate the chance to learn. — Keith Reinhard, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

An idea is salvation by imagination. – Frank Lloyd Wright

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for personal insights on life and its detours.

And, check out creative selections from my website.

Jolan tru!