Adventures in Candyland

I love Wired Magazine (I read almost every story every month - went to WiredNext Fest and plan on seeing the WiredHouse in LA ) and The Long Tail is a genius theory from a genius man, but come on Chris Anderson. I get that you get a ton of spam that has nothing to do with you from PR people. Unfortunately, this is a frustration for every person these days, whether they are an editor of a magazine, a business owner or a uhhh, a human being. I’m not saying you aren’t justified in your opinion that PR people need to be more targeted when pitching a story, but have a little sympathy, people are just doing their job. This is my response to said editor’s rant on ignorant PR people in his blog, The Long Tail.

In essence and ideally, PR people exist to provide a very worthwhile service to writers and editors - to make them aware of companies, people, products and concepts that they may not have time to learn about as they are often harried individuals always on some kind of a deadline. But, somewhere this help that we are supposed to be providing has become an annoyance that journalists now thwart and harp negatively on.

But, instead of outing every poor person who is really just doing their job, even if they may not be doing it well, how about if as I have complained about for numerous years and this PR Week Q & A from one of the aforementioned outees seconds, that journalists be more proactive and detailed about keeping their beats and what they cover current on Bacons, Vocus or on the company website. For so many writers there is no detail provided and even so, beats change often and writers move around often. It’s not always easy to figure out who covers what - even if you are an avid reader of multiple publications. This would provide less of an excuse for PR people to flagrantly send mismatched pitches. No sob story here, but why not make it easier for both sides to give and get what is pertinent to and from them.

Would journalists prefer the whole business of PR would just go away for good? There is sort of a circle of life when it comes to editorial and PR, so I really don’t think that’s the solution. Besides PR people being consistently all-knowing, how can we solve this problem constructively and peacefully?

Come on, pitch me your ideas!

We’ve been working on some Web 2.0 marketing campaigns for some of our clients, but none of them have been nonprofits.  But we have been talking alot about how more nonprofits can and should be taking advantage of Web 2.0.  The thing is, we haven’t seen all that many good creative examples of this, particularly for smaller organizations.  Even when we scour nonprofit resources, much of what they advise seems pretty basic and formulaic…not much creativity.

BUT…yesterday I saw this article in The Washington Post about how the local Goodwill chapter has created a YouTube fashion show video and a blog with vintage fashion tips.  Now there’s some creativity!

If you know of some smaller nonprofits using Web 2.0 in creative ways, let me know.

I’ll admit it - every once in awhile I need a distraction during the day.  We all do it - read our fave blog that has nothing to do with work (in my case Notes from the Trenches), browse Zappos, IM our friends, etc.  In fact, if you’re reading this, you’re probably looking for a distraction yourself.

A few weeks ago, Lauren had a bad distraction.  She had borrowed her father’s Nintendo Brain Age and was totally addicted.  For two day I heard that beeping little game.  Well today I found my newest addiction - and it couldn’t be more perfect for us!  FreeRice is an online vocabulary game - you guess vocabulary definitions and every time you answer correctly, ten grains of rice are donated to starving children.  As writers, expanding our vocab is always fun for us…and when you put a good cause behind it, how can we resist?  

So how does it work?  Throughout the game, sponsors are listed on the page and the sponsors donate money to the UN World Food Program.  When FreeRice launched on October 7th, they donated 830 grains of rice.  Since then, they have donated 165,000,000 grains of rice. 

Today I donated 1,100 grains of rice and learned three new words.  Now that’s a worthwhile distraction.

Sadly, a large portion of Southern California is up in flames today. What’s even worse? This is nothing new. As a native, I have seen fire after fire ravage the hillsides where I grew up. For me, driving through Malibu canyon and smelling Eucalyptus trees is akin to eating a bowl of mac and cheese - I’m home.

So, it’s painful to repeatedly drive through canyons, once covered by California’s distinct green vegetation when it’s been blackened and burnt to a crisp. Tree after tree reduced to charred stick figures. And the cycle continues. Years pass - the greenery rejuvenates and then like clockwork, it happens all over again. Yesterday the clock struck extraordinarily loud and all at once over Southern California.

Here’s an image I took from Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica yesterday. It’s actually beautifully tragic, right. Guess you put ocean in anything and it has the tendency to be so.

And today, as I sit in my office watching the trees wave back and forth with alarming intensity due to the hot, dry and unrelenting Santa Ana winds, I have to tell you I feel sad. According to this piece on Mega Fires, Global Warming is the fuel for these fires and only promises to get worse as the years progress and we ultimately lose half the forests in the West.

This definitely ties into my last entry… and even though I’m not really a political person, I hope that our next President makes the earth’s survival a priority. Because it’s becoming more an more apparent how we’ve slipped up.

People who aren’t from LA always wonder why anyone would want to live here. The earthquakes, the fires, the traffic the smog, the expense. It might seem daunting to some, but I’ve lived other places and when I was away, all I ever wanted was to come home. Boy, am I a dork!

Did you know today is Blog Action Day? It’s a cool idea. Basically, a group of bloggers set out to heighten the awareness of one of the most important topics, environmentalism, throughout the blogoshpere and all on the same day. This mass blogging event will be the topic of the day on 15,000 blogs and reach 12 million readers. So - of course I wanted to participate. What is more important than preserving our earth?

So full disclosure, I am kind of a dork (yes, I like Sci-fi) and I love the NEW Battlestar Gallactica. The premise is humans invented robots, the robots rebel, kill many and take over the world, so the humans left have to flee into space to preserve the what’s left of the race. The characters are constantly craving earth’s environment, so they all want to get away on this one ship that replicates the beauty of earth’s outdoors. A reoccuring theme in shows of this nature for sure, but it always reminds me of how many of us take what we have here for granted. So, hopefully all this awareness will turn into action and not peter out because the reality is: this kind of revolution takes time. This month’s issue of Wired focuses quite a bit on this topic of time and trial and error particularly in regards to the future of energy.

One of the articles addresses the very prevalent molecule, cellulosic ethanol. This molecule is the answer to all our energy woes and even better, it’s just waiting for a good use in everyone’s lawnmowers! Problem is - it’s hard to break down. So even though there are ways to do it, it can’t be done at the proper scale and speed at this point. Sort of the like the whole corn ethanol deal - fuel can be made from it, but it’s not effective and efficient enought. I’m not going to get into the chemistry of it, but I think the underlying topic here is creative solutions and raising awareness regularly so people will continually clamor for solutions even if there isn’t a real answer for many years. Because in truth, there is no option for the US or the world whether due to the environmental or financial ramifications. Therejust isn’t a choice. And there needs to be mavericks who make it their goal to not let these issues just coast along.

In fact, check out these two guys, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. These two probably might not being having a lot of “coffee talk” with mainstream environmentalist. A result of their controversial manifesto from 2005, “Death of Enviromentalism” and new book titled, “Break Through: From “The Death of Environmentalism” to the Politics of Possibility,” but I bet they do inspire passion and hopefully change. They opine current mainstream ideas proposed aren’t extreme enough to make an actual dent in the reality of greenhouse emmisions and the only way for change to be had is if the solutions are, “pro-growth, pro-technology, and pro-environment.” Seems like common sense right, but apprently these are the non-conformist ideas that will turn the enviromental movement onto its ear so something actually gets accomplished. Well, that and money of course.

Whatever they inspire, at least at least they inspire something! Me, I am going to do something too, not world changing big, but world changing in my life big. I drink coffee at least once a day, so I going to make it a point to to use my own cup because it kills me when I see the 30 cups from the past week piling up in the trash. It’s definitely not going to make the impact Nordhaus and Shellenberger want to make, but we all got to start the change somewhere. What are you doing?

Throughout the week, Gina’s guest post about creativity was on my mind…particularly while attending two very different panel discussions - one about luxury design and one about being a successful female entrepreneur.  And I began to notice a theme emerge in our week…I’ll call it “Creating Space.”  By this I mean one of two things - creating physical spaces that inspire your own creativity OR creating space within yourself to allow the creativity to bubble up.  At Sweet Talk, both types of space are really powerful tools for our creativity. 

We realized a few weeks ago that when we need to rework an idea or brainstorm a new one, we find it really helpful to get out of the office and go somewhere for inspiration.  We’ve had some of our best ideas emerge while browsing a bookstore, visiting furniture and design showrooms or eating at good restaurants.  This is our version of creating physical space to emerge creative.

But we also know that we have to create some space within ourselves to allow our creativity to surface.  When we’re too bogged down by details, or have negative energy from each other or from clients, our creative process stalls out.  So we’ve started reminding each other to “create space,” essentially our term for letting things go.  This week, Lauren had a really inspired idea when she created space to think of something other than upcoming deadlines. 

Sooo…in the realm of creating space, here are just a few of our favorite things this week:

Art for everyone at www.20×200.com might help you create an inspiring space.

For some truly beautiful images of space, check out Luce et Studio architects in San Diego.  We were awed by the Nissan Design Studio they created in Detroit.

And for a good example of someone who creates space within himself, check out journalist A.J. Jacobs’ new book, The Year of Living Biblically.   

How do you create space?

Check out how Sweet Talk is helping to differentiate HalloweenMart in a crowded field of competitors in today’s San Francisco Chronicle small business column, “Mind Your Business.”

Social networking can be a powerful and inexpensive tool for small business owners to market their business, but they need to be creative and know how to use it right!

Tick Tock, Tick Tock…being more creative is sometimes all about timing. For years, I worked in the advertising industry as a creative person. Having to be creative on deadline and “on demand” taught me a few things about the magic our minds can produce. Sitting there and thinking “ok, fabulous idea, shine forth your brilliance NOW!” is not likely to produce good (if any) results. The utter panic that can come from a deadline does inspire one to pull something glorious from his/her ass once in awhile, but for the most consistent results – try this: When you feel inspiration brewing, DROP other tasks and ride the wave. When the wave moves through – go back to other things and wait for the next wave. Creativity has its own rhythm, and all you need to do is make the hay while the sun is shining, and get other stuff done on the cloudy days.

Luckily, now that I have my own gift/accessory line, Soul’s Calling, the deadlines are mostly of my own making. But as a designer and business owner the number of different tasks I have to accomplish has increased 10-fold - I definitely have to be in the right space to do anything involving Quickbooks. So, next time your list involves coming up with a brilliant idea, don’t panic – just listen to your own little creative clock and catch the wave.

Hopefully not - but even if you are, that wouldn’t stop us from opening our big mouths! In any case, we thought we would throw some fresh simple syrup into the mix. So, every so often, we’re going unbolt our candy cane gates and let a new gingerbread person in (is it enough of the sugar references?).

This time, Gina Controneo, president and creative director of Soul’s Calling, is who we’ve called to task. Gina, has been a creative director at numerous ad agencies and is probably one of the most creative people I know! So - what’s she gonna blog about - the optimal way to unleash your creativity. I’ll be the first to take her advice.

Speaking of guest blogging, guess who else are going to take the plunge? Umm, Danielle and I of course. This Friday and every Friday, see us go big on gobignetwork.com, the world’s biggest community of startup companies. It makes perfect sense, we have big mouths and we’ll be on Go Big - obviously the perfect fit.

Here are a few of Sweet Talk’s favorite things this week:

First, the countdown to Halloween begins!  Only 26 days left.  If you don’t have your costume yet, check out the extensive collection of costumes, props and decor at HalloweenMart and save 15% by entering MYSPACE as the promo code when checking out.

If you’re looking to make a career change, we’ve got the expert for you.  Well, actually, who isn’t looking for a little career advice?  Tune into Maggie Mistal’s career segments on Martha Stewart Living Radio (Sirius 112)…she’s on Thursdays at 10:30AM EST and 3PM EST. 

Really, what gal wouldn’t want this bag for a weekend away?!  The Savoy Hatbox from FRENCH 1946 luggage really makes a statement.  This is grown-up luggage.

And finally…we were at a conference a few weeks ago that was partially sponsored by flip.  We checked out this palm-sized Pure Digital recorder that plugs directly into a usb port, does not require any tape and only uses two AA batteries.  It seemed so convenient and necessary to bring along on our Adventures in Candyland, that I went to Target the next day and bought one.  Sweet Talk hasn’t benefited from my flip yet cuz I’ve absconded with it and have been capturing all of my son’s adorable antics.  (Full disclosure: Much to my delight, a package arrived for me at our office this week…turns out I had won the flip contest at the conference and they sent me a free one!)  Now Sweet Talk has a flip too, so hopefully you won’t be subject to anymore horrendous cell phone videos embedded in these posts (see Lauren’s NextFest post below). 

What were your faves of the week?  Let us know so we can check them out…