The Pepperspective

A defined brand. New Orleans is one of the most defined brands in the world. You know what you are going to get. New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas. There is a whole range of second level branded cities, but not many that deliver on the purity of the cities I just mentioned. 

Brand is another word for culture. And having a define culture gives people something concrete to experience and contribute to. That is why the New Orleans brand has lived on and will. People can see it clearly in their mind - they buy into long before they arrive for their visit. 

Paint a clear picture and people will decide for themselves if they want to fit in long term, transform for the time being or totally stay away. All three choices are good for your brand. Define your brand based on who you are and the market opportunities you have. Be very direct with it. You will get more people than if you try to be something for everyone. You already new that - so why don’t you do it? Fear. 

People want to know what they are getting…don’t be afraid to keep your brand sharp, it was never meant for everyone. 

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We are doing this 31 day growth challenge at rp…it’s has been interesting to say the least…my challenge involves me going back to things I have already thought/written and just teach straight from them…without any real new research. These have been things I find from my past growth that I believe to still be very valid. I hope you are finding them valuable…or at least interesting. This was a blog post I wrote like 4 years ago. Good night. 

Self doubt is paralyzing. Personally, I struggle with it a lot. Prior to the start of most projects begins an all too regular and tedious laundry list of anxiety and personal misgivings. The inner critic starts it’s rant with “No way this is going to be good. Nothing you’ve done has has lived up to what it should be. No one will like it.” And on and on. You may be familiar with this type of conversation inside your head.

Here at redpepper, growth is important to us. As some of you may know, it’s a big part of our Core Values: We actively support personal growth. If we aren’t changing, we’re dying. and we work hard to make it happen here, on both a personal and professional level. Every employee has a growth coach who works with them to focus on their goals for the year, including set goals for each quarter. We also create fun office challenges with incentives (new iPad anyone?) to really get people excited.

Do you plan your out how you will work before you start your work? At redpepper call this a Creative Plan. Just because you have been assigned to a project and given a budget of hours does not mean you cannot control how you spend those hours.

A planned creative process with the right mix of discipline and flexibility will always produce better work than using no process at all. I plan to talk about Creative Plans in more detail in future posts, but for today I just want to focus on one aspect of your creative plans. This works for both strategic projects and design projects by the way.

Create With Options: I think you should get in the habit of creating at least two viable options at as many stages of the creative process as you can. There are a couple of benefits that come from this.

1. It pushes you past your first idea. (Make sure you put just as much heart in your second idea as you do your first)
2. It makes it easier to take feedback…because you gave your audience/client options which means you do not experience only rejection…choices make you and your clients happier.
3. You will learn more along the way…and it will push the level of your work. As you push to create options it will teach you things you will use on both options.

Below is a drawing of what your creative process could look like.

Smart people combine confidence in themselves with the discipline to ask themselves the right questions at the right times. It is important to think carefully about the questions we ask ourselves in our work. I am keeping tonight’s teaching nice and short, so you might check out the two links below. Both are more than worth the small price they charge and both of them will help you ask questions that will improve your thinking. 

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work:
http://tiny.cc/decisive

Creative Whack Pack: 
http://tiny.cc/whackpack

I have learned many things about the creative process, but none seems to be more difficult to swallow for the creative mind than this one. A creative mind goes through a process…one that leads them from one inspiration to another, from one little decision to another…and these decisions are emotional in nature…you see, we all ask designers to take the emotion out of their work and set it aside for creative reviews or client feedback, but this is not possible…this emotion is exactly what their creativity lives on. Asking a creative person to remove the emotion from their work is the same as stealing the oxygen from their very lungs.

Designers out there, you must remember one key thing…the creative process (or path) you went on to get to the right answer you presented is not repeatable…but the awesome part of design is there is often a number of solutions to any given problem. Truly creative minds can solve a single problem over and over again in different ways each time. So the next time you are asked to start over, don’t take it as a set back or a knock against your creativity. Take it as an opportunity to make something even better…even more right…even more full of the creative oxygen you need to breathe. 

A clip from my favorite movie is below…good night. 

The May redpepper Facebook cover photo was a result of an experiment involving:

To change your life in a significant way, you have to change something you do daily.

We Actively Support Personal Growth - one of our coveted core values here at redpepper. Some of the awesome people here at redpepper have introduced a 31 day growth challenge. Something intentional and consistent related to growth for 31 straight days. Easier said than done…and some will not make it, but I plan to give it my very best. My focus is going to be on being more intentional with teaching all the wonderful things I am learning while working at redpepper. And in 200 words or less…so you don’t get board. I am hoping I will not bury lead and allow you to have a little take away from my journey in this biz without having to spend too much time digging. :) Which is why I switched the paragraphs and put my lesson above this little rant. So you get two lessons of the biz today.

#2. Don’t bury the lead.

I hope to get more articulate and concise in my teachings as we move through this exercise. Follow me and see what happens. I don’t plan to make every post at 11:30pm after a few beers either.

During a press conference outside their Nashville headquarters, advertising agency redpepper announced its tribute video in support of National Lost Sock Day.  Tim McMullen, CEO of redpepper told reporters, “Lost socks are an epidemic that have affected a majority of the people on planet Earth.  The physical and emotional toll this takes on us as humans is incomprehensible, and more often than not, these wounds never properly heal.”  redpepper is hoping to encourage others to share their stories in an attempt to cope with the widespread loss in their community.

Manning the streets with a camera and a mission, redpepper interviewed the Nashville area about their experience with lost socks.  McMullen continued,  ”The first step is to raise awareness.  This is a common problem that people need to be talking about in order to fully recover.”  Local lost sock advocate Samara Anderson was happy to share her story with the camera crew, “Finally a company is taking a stand and giving a voice to those lost socks who will never again have one.  Today is a day of celebration.  Remembering the good times, cherishing the memories, and living your life to the fullest— just like your other half would have wanted.”  

It is widely known that Nashville is one of the worst cities in America for lone sock disposal.   When a sock goes missing many opt to throw away its other half.  Here at redpepper we want to put an end to this act of dismissal and celebrate your lone ranger.  ”No one is trying to dismiss your feelings of half emptiness,” McMullen said,”but we do want to remember the good times.  Remember when the three of you gracefully slid across the floor together in your Risky Business Halloween costume?  That is what we want to hear about.”

redpepper is asking its community to participate in the tribute by sponsoring a Vine contest.   Using 6-second Vine videos people are asked to share their memories of their lost partner.  The hashtag #lostsock will be a forum for families and loved ones to band together in unity exclaiming, “Gone, but not forgotten!”  redpepper will select the most creative contributor’s video and make a $100 gift card donation (to them directly) in the name of all lost socks.

Do you enjoy leading and having conversations? Presenting ideas?

Emerging from your office every now and—often?

Well, well, well. We knew you were special.

On that note, let us make sure we’re crystal clear about our needs. More clear than your understanding of responsive web design, in fact.

First thing’s first: You must have stellar agency account management and organizational skills (3-5 years, preferably) and a proven track record of results in the social media space. Things do not fall through the cracks on your watch. In fact, there are no cracks because you seal them with a smudge of “I’ll handle it.” and you’re not afraid to spackle with “This isn’t exactly what we discussed.”

Are you an accountant? Do you prefer April 15^th to Christmas?

Do you like to sit quietly alone in your windowless corner office and crunch numbers all day? Good. 

We heard Ernst & Young is hiring.

Do you own a calculator? Quick! What is 6-2?  Did you get 4?  Ok then, keep reading.

Would you enjoy leading a radtacular ad agency in day-to-day bookkeeping as well as future financial planning? Even better. 

redpepper is hiring.

In honor of March Madness and all the bracketing goodness this brings to the world during this month, I wanted to showcase some of the brands and technologies that are leveraging this well.

To start, there’s the bracket itself. redpepper decided to collectively use the app Simple Bracket which started as a Kickstarter project that received over $12K in funding.

We love the simple user experience and sleek design. It offers just what you need and nothing more. 

Are you waiting for the perfect teacher so you can be taught? 
Guess what, they are not showing up. 

Are you waiting for the perfect life before being happy?
Guess what, it’s not showing up.

Are you wanting an invitation to take initiative?
Guess what, it’s not showing up. 

Your energy and passion are a product of your own mind. 
Are you showing up?