What motivates me: the things I do best

Four things have motivated me throughout my career:

1. Creating clarity from complexity.  What does it take to find the essence of an issue and communicate it in a way that people say, “Oh, I get it.”  This is why I particularly like executive communications, crisis communications, sales strategy.
2. Creating stories that influence, persuade, motivate and inspire.   All companies have the inspiration for these stories, but few know how to find them,  pull them out, and tell them in a passionate, compelling way.  Marketing, workplace communications, and sales are all about telling stories. Not “messaging to” people.
3. New ways to communicate and engage:  I’ve always been fascinated with how to tell a story and move an audience, which is why I’ve always been an early adopter of Web 1.0, blogging, social media, and all kinds of cool tools and techniques,
4. Finding possibilities:  “what’s possible” could be my mantra right after “creating clarity.”  I have a passion for helping organizations and executives see possibilities and figure out how to make them real. One of the reasons I so like speaking to big groups is that I’m able to plant “possibility seeds” and show them the path for pragmatically getting to where they want to go.

Short version of my career

In the 1980s I helped some of the most famous — and sometimes outright crazy –  high tech companies go from geek squads to global business leaders. In the 1990s, I jumped into the   dot com mania, co-founding a digital marketing agency  acquired by a major communications conglomerate. In the mid 2000’s I dove into word of mouth marketing and social media, publishing the award winning book Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing in 2007.

My blog is www.foghound.com. Over the years I’ve written articles for The Wall St. Journal, USA TODAY and numerous trade magazines, and had the great pleasure of speaking all over the world about marketing and strategic communications trends.
The basics

• Started as a journalist, writing obits and weddings, covering fires and local political races
• Executive in public relations agencies (some NYC boutiques you’ve never heard of and Weber Shandwick) and co-founder of early interactive marketing agency (Thunder House), acquired by McCann Erickson
• Clients: SAP, Sun, HP, Sapient, FedEx, Communispace, Harvard Publishing, Dunkin’ Donuts, TJX, DST Output, and Agfa and eRoom, where Francois was my client
• Schools: University of New Hampshire, Harvard University
• Books: wrote Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing, the gold medal recipient of the 2008 Axiom Business Book Award for best marketing/advertising/public relations book and the 2008 finalist in the Berry-American Marketing Association Book Awards.
• Non-profit work: officer/trustee of Trinity Rep Theater

My beliefs

• To succeed in a “talk” marketing world, you need to have ideas that people want to talk about and share with others.
• Communications can change the world and is the most essential leadership skill after empathy.
• Make meaning not buzz.
• If you want to get more interest, be more interesting.

3 things most people don’t know about me

• My new book is about to be published, Be The Noodle: 50 Ways to Be a Compassionate, Courageous Crazy-Good Caregiver. Of all the story telling and writing I’ve ever done, this book is what I’m most proud of. It’s  a somewhat irreverent, oftentimes funny, and above all helpful book about how to stay sane  and find new super-powers while helping someone you love die, which can be one of life’s greatest adventures.
• Almost didn’t complete my graduate business program because I just couldn’t write code a part of technology requirement; prof made an exception and kindly let me do research presentation instead.
• Was in the Metropolitan Opera Company’s Madame Butterfly at age four. (Because I was small and not scared of loud music; nothing to do with talent!)

My  marketing play list

1. “You Get What You Give,” The New Radicals: sums up marketing – provide a great product or experience and you get passionate customers
2. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” Rolling Stones: how we (and our bosses) all feel about marketing
3. “The Way,” Neil Young: the kids’ chorus instills joy and hopefulness
4. “Wild Thing,” The Troggs: helps me shake loose and see possibilities
5. Rock the Casbah, The Clash: anything’s possible
6. Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky), Bill Conti: older CEOs get juiced and open for change when they hear it; for some demographics it’s a great meeting opener
7. Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin, Andre Previn & the London Symphony Orchestra: reminds me of how a start- up or new campaign plays out
8. Disco Inferno, The Trammps: The “burn baby burn line” gets me thinking about how to burn down the obstacles that are part of getting new ideas and programs approved
9. We Can’t Be Somebody Else,” Arling & Cameron; it’s all about authenticity.
10. “Tell Me Something Good,” Chaka Khan & Rufus. What every CEO and sales exec really wants to hear.
11. “Tell Me,” Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings: Sharon’s been working hard for years and is finally getting traction and notice; like many programs, businesses and careers. you’ve got to put in the hard work and stay true to your goals.(Plus she just puts me in a mood to move,)