"Boy, I got vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals..."

I have a good friend from San Francisco (with a heart 10x the size of most) who, like a force of nature,  blows into town unexpectedly from time to time, always with some sort of fun happening and interesting people in her wake. 


As an example:  She's in town Monday and has extra tickets to the Paul Newman benefit tribute at Lincoln Center.  

(In addition to this being a good example about Lori, this is also how life actually moves in this fairytale called New York).


Paul Newman is in my top 'most admired' list.  Besides starring in my favorite film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", it was his benevolent nature that was even more attractive than his charm and blue eyed swagger. Acting seemed like a side gig; Paul's best performance art was showing us how to live.


His work with Newman's Own and the Hole in the Wall Gang is legendary, raising the bar for future generations of celebrities with a cause.  He was also a well known supporter of my organization, starring in a PSA that many still talk about.   He was the embodiment of "To whom much is given, much is expected...." 

A favorite quote of his:
"We are such spendthrifts with our lives, the trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I’m not running for sainthood. I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out.”

Listening to Others

My yoga teacher (whose blog I read regularly even if I'm not as regular in my practice) wrote a lovely post about being still and listening to yourself that you can read if you click this link.   


Yesterday I had the opportunity of listening to others, in what marketers call "focus groups."


In the private sector, focus groups are often conducted in different markets (cities), with moderated discussions probing consumer targets (select groups of people based on demographic or psychographic profiles, or some other measure) about a variety of things that may have to do with why they like brand X over brand Y, their opinions on certain product or service benefits,  impressions on new advertising creative, regional preferences and so on.   


Certain companies and brands who pride themselves on innovation may put less stock in 'consumer insights' learned from focus groups.  Steve Jobs famously said, "It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."  


Though listening to focus groups about more mundane matters such as what brand of toothpaste they would purchase over another at a grocery store, or what might motivate them to change cell phone service providers can be interesting and revealing, because stopping to listen to what others think outside of your own organization always is.  


An often repeated quote from real life 'Mad Men' David Ogilvy, that has stood the test of time: "The consumer isn't a 'moron'; she is your wife."


Even more interesting to me was what I experienced yesterday: listening to people discuss why they personally decided to support a non-profit organization, why they might have decided to do this on a monthly basis, and why they might have been doing so for 20 to sometimes 30 plus years.    


I was sitting next to someone from the research department of a large ad agency and he said, "I have never listened to such an engaged focus group before."


I commented to one of my colleagues, "Some of these people have been giving to our organization longer than you have been alive."





Not every focus group is inspiring and humbling, but I think no matter what you are listening for, it's the 'why' that matters....

Here's to the Explorers!

While my day job is helping to get people to connect with, care about and ideally support our work in nature, most of the time my version of 'field work' is sitting at a desk in the concrete jungle, 16 floors up, dialing into webex conference calls and looking at powerpoints and white papers.


Last night I attended the premiere for Discovery Channel's amazing new "Frozen Planet" series which gives viewers a rare glimpse into a world they likely will never see, life at the North and South Pole.


Polar bears traveling miles in the frozen Arctic to find a mate (ahem, gives some perspective to 21st century dating life), seeing a forest that contains over a third of all trees on the planet and watching surfing penguins in Antarctica slip away from a hungry seal helped to remind me that the ends of the earth is full of incredible life, and how we're all connected to it. 


I left thinking about how challenging filming conditions must have been, and still not able to fully grasp how early explorers discovered these places, traveling by boat or on foot.


"Il faut aller voir - We must go and see for ourselves," said Jacques Cousteau.  


We all don't have it in us to be explorers, but their spirit of adventure and trailblazing discoveries continue to light up our lives, fill us with wonder and amazement, and just open up the world past our limited horizons. 


Sea World in San Diego brought in two penguins for the premiere, and I am still smitten from my face to face encounter with "Penny" and her shy little friend.  


So I'm off to work again, with meetings and budget discussions, but now have penguin cam to keep me connected with the joyful waddle of one of the millions of species who share our planet with us.

Live video from your Android device on Ustream

Feel the Force, Luke

Looking back, it's occurred to me that 'the right thing' tends to show up in my life, when I need it most, right on schedule. 


Of course this isn't typically my schedule (and I must suffer from amnesia as I always tend to forget this, and think that worrying about it is a much better idea) but the range of a chance viewing of a college brochure of a pretty campus on the shores of Lake Michigan in my high school guidance counselor's office to the new idea that suddenly pops in my head to even saying to a good friend in England when I lived in a small beach town in California "Oh I love it here, though wish I knew some people!" and finding out that her continental cousins somehow lived 10 blocks away...happens all the time.  


I've realize it's happened once again as I've been finding my way in my new job.  Seven months into things, I  absolutely love it in a 'meant to be' type of way, though it's very different than the type of work I've always done in the private sector, at fast moving agencies and small-mid sized companies.  For one thing, at an agency, you're 'done' when you've completed the task, whatever it is -- improved sales, gotten splashy PR coverage, helped get  new product distribution, made the client look good to his/her boss.  I remember once talking to a friend who is trader and he explained how his P&L essentially 'begins new' every day.  There's a similar sense of beginning and ending completion. 


At a mission oriented non-profit organization, you're never done.


There's also the difference of executive style leadership vs. a more legislative style, as noted in the terrific book 'Good to Great in the Social Sectors', and the sheer size of a global NGO that works in 35 countries, all 50 states, with 2,000 projects going on around the globe any given time, with many priorities, long term objectives and strategies.  It's a lot to wrap your head around.


Somehow though, the 'right thing' showed up once again though in the form of a board member who has become a true marketing mentor, something I've realized I've never actually had.   As fate would have it, this board member, who I will call "Sam", is a very accomplished professional, and also in between positions, so for the past few months I've had the gift of working with him instead of a passing hello at board meetings four times a year.   


When Sam and I talk, it's the focused clarity that comes when Obi-Wan Kenobi speaks with young Skywalker, his Jedi apprentice.   Here's the path.  


I'm thankful for the gift of 'the right thing' that has shown up, once again.  


And for some of my readers who are in between days, perhaps waiting for that 'right thing' to show up, there's also the thought that like Sam, you may be someone else's 'right thing'....