(1) I am an unapologetic traditionalist when it comes to Christmas. Don’t move my Christmas cheese.

(2) The opinions about to be expressed are mine and even though they are rich in undeniable truth, I fully recognize that no matter how wrong you may be, you may not agree with them. Please try to get over it.

(3) If I come off as old and grouchy, it’s because I’m old and grouchy.

Every year at this time, when Christmas music begins filling the airwaves, I begin compiling in my mind a list of Christmas albums that should never have been made. There certainly is no shortage of Christmas music out there and if you listen to enough of it, you will eventually hear songs that you will consider a waste of time and resources. The body of Christmas music was probably fully realized years ago and anything recorded after that is simply redundant and adds no value to the body of work. And unless the music brings something totally new to the arena, I have to wonder why, other than a holiday money-grab, these recordings were ever made in the first place.

Just because you have access to a recording studio and you think you could sell a few Christmas albums to a tiny group of diehard fans, doesn’t mean you should try to find 10 or 12 holiday songs to fill a CD and promote it as if it were something new. It will more than likely end up on someone’s list of Christmas music that never should have been made.

For instance, anything recorded for Christmas by the Ronettes or any other studio girl-band from the 50’s and 60’s. Or anything “holidays” by James Brown. Or Bruce Springsteen, for that matter. He sounds disturbingly upset at the prospect of “Santa Claus Coming To Town!” My teeth itch anytime I hear Eartha Kitt purring, “Santa Baby” and Madonna’s more recent re-recording of that effort just proves my point that it’s possible to waste electricity and vinyl on such ridiculous songs. (Personally, I prefer Miss Piggy’s version to either one of the aforementioned.)

Chuck Berry singing, “run, run Rudolph”?… really?

If I hear Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” many more times, I may swear off of rock AND Christmas trees. I swore off of Brenda Lee years ago. I’m a huge Beach Boys fans, but… a Christmas collection? Painful! Even the sainted Paul McCartney has done some really bad Christmas songs and he’s man enough to admit it.

“Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”, in my opinion, didn’t happen soon enough or permanently enough. And how about those incredibly talented dog impersonators barking out, “Jingle Bells”? If that ain’t a crowd pleaser! And Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” doesn’t even make a good musical background for a taco commercial, let alone adding something meaningful to the body of Christmas music.

But nothing even comes close to last year’s release of the barely anticipated Bob Dylan Christmas album. I’m a huge Bob Dylan fan, but… this one leaves me practically speechless. I’m not exaggerating when I confess that blood was spurting from my ears the entire time I listened to this collection. It was a cross between hilarious and homicidal, neither of which, I’m sure, was the intention. Listen to it at your own risk!

After listening to me rant on this subject earlier this month, my wife put the whole thing in perspective for me. She pointed out that if I had 30 days of air time that I had to fill with Christmas music for 24 hours a day, I’d end up scraping the bottom of the barrel, too. Probably so.

But let me conclude by saying to recording artists and music executives everywhere that before being tempted to add to the growing list of worthless, awful, wasteful, tasteless, irritating, redundant, ear ache-inducing Christmas music, consider this:

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

What Christmas music do you consider a waste of time, talent and natural resources?

- Bill Love

Have you ever thought of your organization as a person? Your business may look good and seem to have itself together from the outside. But inside there is something missing. Consider yourself “the brain” of your organization – you control the body’s movement and thoughts, however without the body you aren’t going very far. More specifically, above all else, your body needs a heart. Every body part including the brain, depends on the heart to drive them. Without that heart, the organization is not the best version of itself. It’s languishing instead of flourishing. How do you change that? It simply takes reflection on the heart of your organization – your brand.

Organizations face many challenges in becoming the best version of themselves. Maybe their service doesn’t quite lineup with what consumers expect. Maybe it’s internal and employees “just do their job” to get by. Perhaps the economy has hit hard and there are tough choices to be made. Much like an individual who is trying to achieve growth, an organization needs to face those obstacles head on. It needs to surround itself with good people, great support partners and implement best practices. An organization needs to back up what it promises and treat others as it would want to be treated. Yes, I just broke out the golden rule. It’s so simple, yet so true – and something easily forgotten in the competitive business realm.

Your brand is what a community feels from you, not what it sees. I believe consistently designed media, a well-told story and a great strategic marketing plan can start you on the right path to giving a great first impression with a consumer – but it’s the passion that a community feels that creates relationships and loyalty. Consumers are concerned about how they are treated and if you deliver on your promises. Isn’t that what a friend is? Isn’t that the golden rule? That passion comes from within the organization. That commitment to what your brand stands for, how you operate and the level of excellence you wish to maintain starts with the people in your organization. That’s the heart of your organization. You need a buy-in from all involved.

We’ve had some great first-hand experience being involved with organizations whose employees have a passion for what they do. They are interested in creating a brand, an experience. It’s contagious when it’s around you. It is even better to be involved in spreading it around and educating others. Telling a story and enhancing a mission is a rewarding experience for everyone involved. When your body is in tune with your heart – there is no stopping it from becoming a better version of itself. Even though an organization will change and grow, if that heart keeps beating it won’t stray from who it is. You flourish. You become the best version of you –  you become “you-ier.” Isn’t that what we all strive to be?

In honor of the holiday, this post will simply be one of thanks. While we give employees the Friday after Thanksgiving off, I like to take advantage of the quiet office to get things done…like write a blog post. When I was brainstorming what to write, I just kept reflecting back to a comment made by a member of the staff last week about being thankful for working with truly good people. It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did, and I’ve thought a lot about it since. I’m not shy about proclaiming how much I love my job, but I don’t often say why. So here are the reasons I’m thankful for where I’ve landed:

1)      I’m thankful for truly talented staff. There is not one person in here that I don’t trust to do their job, and do it well. I’ve experienced the opposite before, and it’s not fun. It’s incredibly comforting to know that I can do my job without worrying about what everyone else is doing.

2)      I’m thankful for the good people working around me. Not only do I trust everyone in here to do their work…I trust everyone in here. Period. We’ve surrounded ourselves with great people. Honest. Genuine. Caring. Committed. I’m proud of our team, not for who they claim to be, but for who they really are (and trust me…we’re small enough to have seen the good, bad and ugly from all!)

3)      I’m thankful for a shared vision. With the addition of Mission Assist to our service offerings, which took a year to develop and required an incredible amount of patience, I feel blessed that everyone understands the purpose and feels the passion. I believe it was divinely inspired and could only have happened with the support and conviction of the whole team. It was literally a leap of faith…and each time someone from an organization actually gives me a heartfelt thanks for what we’re offering, I am grateful for a team that believes in a mission bigger than ourselves.

4)      I am thankful to be working in Des Moines, Iowa. This town is a great place to live and work. I’ve worked in Phoenix and St. Louis, and there’s no comparison. The connections, the loyalty and the enthusiasm of Des Moines businesses and their employees cannot be matched. It creates such a sense of community and goodwill. I’m willing to overlook the blustery winters for this fact. And coming from someone who hates cold…that says a lot.

It’s a short list of thanks, but these are at the very core of why I love my job and the people with whom I spend 50% of my life. What are some things about your job you’re thankful for? Hopefully there’s a list…or you better be moving on

I’ve been having some dashboard lights going on in my car recently. I took the car to an auto shop to get checked out. They said everything was fine. Took the car home, the lights come back on, wash, rinse, repeat. In fact, I took my car back to the same auto shop three times!!! Each time they told me it was nothing. I was doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.

Lesson one: If you keep trying the same thing, you’re going to get the same results. Try something different if you want something else to happen.

Two weeks ago, I take the car to a mechanic who specializes in my make of vehicle. He tries a few things out, then tells me if the car isn’t running funny the lights are nothing to worry about. But he gives me a warning, “as soon as your gas mileage changes or the car doesn’t seem right, call me!” Well guess what happened one week after I took the car to him?  I took it back. Insanity, right? Not exactly…the lights were still on, but the car started to act funny – pardon my lack of proper mechanical terminology – but it sounded like my car was going to explode when it was in idle. I take the car immediately back to the mechanic.

Lesson two: Know what red flags you need to be watching for…and when you find one, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Don’t wait, act!

Mechanic spends several hours trying to figure out what’s wrong with the car. Calls me and tells me he has no idea. He’s stumped. He actually recommends I take the car to the dealer. I’ve NEVER had a private mechanic recommend I take a car to the dealer.

Lesson three: Know when to give up. There is no shame in admitting you’re stumped or don’t have the answers.

So I take the car to the dealer. The dealer gives me an estimate for repairs. I get detail from the dealer on exactly what they think is wrong. I call back the specialty mechanic and ask him if the dealer sounds like they’re legit. I also ask him if he wants the work. He tells me the dealer is legit in the diagnosis, and he doesn’t want to do the work because it’s outside his area of expertise.

Lesson four: Check your sources when you feel like something might be “off.”

AND lesson five: Know when something is outside your area of expertise and communicate that to the person you’re trying to help.

Picked up the car today…and it purrs like a kitten! So who gets my future business – the original auto shop, the mechanic or the dealer?  Well, as much as I loved my old auto shop, the mechanic is taking this one. Not only did he try to help me (without charging me when he couldn’t find/fix the problem) he let me know when he couldn’t help me AND he sent me to the place that could. Because of his actions, I’ll remember him as someone I WANT to do business with in the future.

Lesson six: Honestly and integrity will always win in the end.

During these weeklong mission trips, we work to improve, however slightly and temporarily, the lives of Native Americans living on the Navajo reservation. The area where we do our work in New Mexico is situated in the second or third poorest county in the United States, depending on who’s doing the talking. So we do what we can… fixing holes in roofs; replacing broken windows; building handicapped accessible entrances to homes; chopping wood for winter warmth; running electricity to replace a single extension cord powering an entire house… the needs are endless and the effect eye-opening and life-changing. Each time I go, I come back with a crystal clear understanding of how blessed my life has been and how uplifting it can be to serve others.

But another thing the mission trips have taught me is that you don’t have to travel to Gallup, New Mexico, to find need. There is no shortage of opportunities to serve right here at home. Many of these needs are currently being addressed by non-profit organizations that are unselfishly making a very real and significant difference in the lives of others.

It was this realization, and our experience as the pro-bono marketing arm for the past two years for Meals from the Heartland, that prompted us to start an effort at Love Scott we call “Mission Assist.” Simply put, Mission Assist is an effort to help non-profit organizations better tell their stories, enhance their missions, and increase their funding. Mission Assist provides complete, coordinated marketing and development assistance to non-profit organizations at a substantially reduced charge.

It is headed by an individual who has spent 30 years in the non-profit sector, many of them at the top level of various non-profit organizations. He completely understands the problems and opportunities common to non-profits. This level of knowledge and experience, combined with Love Scott’s 40 years in marketing, results in Mission Assist having a lot to offer non-profit organizations seeking to rise to the next level of effectiveness.

But the most rewarding aspect of Mission Assist for me has been the excitement it has generated among our staff. It turns out they have generous hearts for helping advance the work of non-profits. They have embraced Mission Assist with enthusiasm and seem to get an energy boost when their talents are turned toward helping a non-profit be even more effective.

Last March, we brought a couple dozen Navajo youth from New Mexico, who had been identified as having leadership potential, to Des Moines for a week of intense leadership training. On the last day, after they had worked several afternoons for non-profit organizations serving various needs around the city, we asked them if they were surprised at the level of need in our city. They answered that they weren’t particularly surprised by the level of need, but they were surprised by the number of local organizations actively involved in addressing those needs.

I think that says something really good about the caring nature of the people of Greater Des Moines and the great work being done by so many area non-profits. It’s a pleasure for us to be able to partner, through Mission Assist, with the important work they’re doing.

Several of my favorite bloggers who write about their healthy living lifestyles and offer recipes, exercise suggestions and support were cited by a large fashion magazine for promoting unhealthy living in a magazine article titled The Hunger Diaries. The magazine paints an apparent unflattering picture of these bloggers, using their online diaries to showcase their “bad, obsessive habits.”

The bloggers, already a vocal group, came together en masse to write rebuttals to the article. Not only did the main bloggers cited in the article respond, but their readers and support system rallied around them in just a few hours to share their frustration with the magazine and reporter. Be sure to check out the Magazine’s Facebook page to see the hundreds of comments rallying around the bloggers.

The public relations implications of this incident are very representative of what clients fear every day when dealing with the news media. Clients are cautious of media interviews because they might not trust a reporter’s reputation. Some are afraid to grant interviews because something they say or do can be taken out of context or misrepresented. Add in the element of social media and word-of-mouth and clients are worried their comments can spin out of control before they even have a chance to clarify anything.

While the healthy living bloggers situation is less than 24-hours old, there are already public relations lessons to take away.

Always ask the intent of the story. Make sure the reporter tells you what they are trying to prove with their article. That being said, these bloggers asked the reporter her intent and claim they were lied to so…

Trust your gut. Some of the bloggers didn’t feel right during the interviews and felt there were some strange questions being asked by the reporter. If something doesn’t feel right, end the interview. But just in case, keep copies of all correspondence and don’t be afraid to take notes during your interview on the questions you are being asked and the way you respond.

Make corrections quickly. Within a few hours yesterday morning, the article was live on the magazine’s website. Most of the bloggers mentioned had their responses posted by lunchtime. Some even had point-by-point rebuttals to the author’s claims. If they had waited another day, another week, the story is old news.

Use social media to rally the troops. In this case, all it took was the bloggers to post the magazine editors name, e-mail and Facebook page link to get people to respond with their distaste for the article. By mid-afternoon, hundreds of comments were on the Facebook page against the magazine article. This passionate response was because these bloggers have a large base of followers who are interested and engaged in that community. If your customers aren’t engaged in your social media community, find a way to get them active before something like this happens.

Keep it in context. One lesson learned by these bloggers is that in today’s world, what you post on your blog can be taken for face value – and that’s it. One blogger’s 22-mile-run can sound obsessive, but when framed in context of marathon training, it doesn’t sound so unreasonable. Making sure you tell your whole story is incredibly important.

I’ve managed to keep the magazine’s name out of the entire entry, but since I haven’t seen it yet, Marie Claire, what is your response to all of this?

Don’t get me wrong – it’s a lot of work. I’m fairly certain our agency has never put this amount of time toward any other non-paying client. But when we made the commitment, we all agreed we were making a commitment. And trust me, we’ve reminded ourselves and each other many times that we are fulfilling a commitment that we made. Inevitably, it all comes around to remembering the end goal…a starving person receiving a nutritional meal. That’s what it’s all about.

My favorite moment of the last two years working with MftH is standing in the middle of Hy-Vee Hall during the event with literally hundreds of cheerful Iowans buzzing around me – young, old, every race and religion, working together to feed people they will likely never see or hear a “thanks” from, and I get chills as my throat tightens and eyes fill. I get teary just writing about it. It is SO WORTH the time and effort. It restores my faith in humanity, and even in myself.

This year made me especially proud of everyone involved. The special vignettes constructed by MftH volunteers who visited Haiti served as a life-size visual of how people are living there. “Tent City”, as we called it, brought reality closer to home for most of us who have only seen the images on TV. I watched as adults cried their way through the maze of tents, and children asked their parents “but where are the bathrooms? What about bedrooms?” and their eyes grow wide as they were told the truth. When the idea of building the vignettes was first discussed in a committee meeting, I remember thinking it’d be a miracle if it really came together…so much effort, so much work. But it did. And it was my favorite place to be while volunteering that weekend.

I’ve taken lessons from the Meals group on how to make things happen, even if the rest of the world (literally) deems it impossible. It is this experience that has led our agency to a new venture in our business. While we can’t offer this same free service to all non-profits and still keep our doors open, we can offer our expertise and hearts to these organizations through an affordable and practical program that provides fundraising and marketing expertise. We’ve spent a good portion of the last year brainstorming, developing, refining and polishing our Mission Assist program, and I’m proud to say my heart is wrapped up in the offer.

As I ushered people into Tent City last week, a little girl who couldn’t have been more than 6-years old, walked by me and said in a shy, sweet voice, “Thank you for helping people who need it.” THAT, my friends, was my payment in full.

When I first read this a few years ago, I did some thinking about the way I was living and resolved to begin eliminating hurry from my life. It seemed like a great idea at the time, and still does. But I soon learned that eliminating hurry from my life is easier said than done.

Civilization has been gathering speed since day one. Every important advancement mankind has made has brought with it the capacity to do things faster. And so we have. The more we can get done, the more we can get done. The ability to multi-task has somehow become an admirable quality in today’s hectic world. Busyness is often confused with productivity and most of the time, the busier we are the more in a hurry we are. But being busy does not mean you have to be in a hurry.

The simple truth is, nothing truly important… nothing… can be done in a hurry.

You can’t do your best work in a hurry. You can’t establish meaningful relationships in a hurry. You can’t spend quality time with your kids in a hurry. You can’t be there for your friends in a hurry. You can’t rest in a hurry. You can’t plan for and live a healthy, productive life in a hurry.

So I have recently redoubled my resolve to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from my life. I’ve discovered the operative word here is “ruthlessly.” Eliminating hurry is simply not a casual occupation. It involves a purposeful, “ruthless” turning away from the way I’ve lived most of my life and an equally “ruthless” resolve to re-learn how to live at a manageable pace. It involves an almost minute-by-minute realization of how I am reacting to the pressures that cause hurriedness. It involves a lot of talking to myself and a lot of accountability to those who know about my quest and aren’t shy about calling me on it when I begin to give in to hurriedness.

I’ve discovered that hurry does, in fact, breed waste. I find the old sayings “haste makes waste” and “the hurrieder I go, the behinder I get” to be absolutely true. Hurry is a terrible waste of valuable time. When I’m in a hurry, it takes me much longer to do something than when I’m not in a hurry.

But the most important realization I’ve come to is that when I’m in a hurry, I don’t have time to be a better person. I can’t be the person I want to be because I don’t have time. How pathetic is that? My goal is to slow down and begin smelling the roses and being an encouragement to someone who needs a good word and pausing to appreciate the natural beauty all around me and contributing my time to serve someone in need and reading a book slowly enough to actually breathe it in and going on a road trip with no particular schedule in mind and stop caring about being interrupted because, after all, I’m in no hurry.

I want to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from my life and I encourage you to do the same. Your life will be better for it.

If you ever see me and I seem to be in a hurry, please call me on it. Be ruthless! Say to me, “You know that thing about ruthlessly eliminating hurry from your life, how’s that going?”

I’ll get the hint.

Bill Love

All of those are viable visuals for “focus,” but what does “focus” mean to your writing?

When I apply the word “focus” to writing, whether it’s a simple blog post, a press release for a client, or a story for my children, I see it as a metaphor derived from my background as a photographer.

Photographers want their images to be “in focus,” as sharp and as clear as they can be (in most cases). As the photographer focuses on their subject by making slight turns and adjustments of the lens, so the writer tries to see the story as clearly as possible through visualization, drafting, revisualization, editing (and more editing) until “the picture” is crystal clear. Then, snap. Done.

So how does focus express itself in your writing? How can you, as a writer, achieve better focus?

Here are some common questions I ask while writing that help sharpen the picture:

1 – Who’s the story talking to?
2 – What’s the news?
3 – What’s one thing the reader MUST know?
4 – What makes this story interesting? (Is it interesting to others or just you?)
5 – What is the story about? (No, REALLY, what’s it about?)
5.5 – Walk away and look at it later with fresh eyes. (Revisualization)

While anyone can pick up a pencil, pen or pull out a keyboard and write, if it’s focused, writing can have impact. With focus, writing can help your community, help make change, help save lives and inspire the world.

How do you focus when writing?

But tucked among the sarcasm, humor and self-deprecation, Dave actually incorporates little nuggets of wisdom, whether he means to or not. Last night I came across one passage that really got me thinking (one reason I liked this book so much right now was that, for the most part, it didn’t require ANY thinking).

Dave was talking about kids’ sports these days and how parents are so involved, sometimes a little too much. He cites examples like screaming on the sidelines and convincing kids of being really great at something they actually show little ability to grasp. Of his own athletic abilities as a child he said,

“I learned, for example, that even though I was not as big, or fast, or strong, or coordinated as the other kids, if I worked really hard—if I gave 100 percent and never quit—I would still be smaller, slower, weaker and less coordinated than the other kids. In other words, I learned that even though I enjoyed playing sports, I sucked at them. And understanding that you suck at some things is useful information in life. The world would be a better place if people were fully cognizant of their areas of suckage.”

Amen. I’m known for being fairly straight-forward, and will readily admit when I’m really not very good at something – math, computers, miniature golf, and swimming for any purpose other than not drowning. And it’s funny, and sometimes incredibly frustrating, when someone tries to convince me otherwise. “Oh, I bet you’d really like mini-golf, and are probably really good at it, if you’d just try.” Ummmm, no. I’ve tried many, many times, and I a) don’t like it at all, and b) really suck at it. TRUST ME.

I started thinking about this in professional terms. How many times have I come across someone who thinks they can do everything for their business? They know what their customers like, they know how to reach and sell to them most effectively, they know how to write copy for things ranging from newsletters to ads. There’s little they don’t know, and by golly, they sure don’t suck at any of this! That’s their business!

No it’s not. Their business is to make a profit (or, in the case of non-profits, to keep the organization going and growing). They are where they are in the business because they know how to do certain things really well. There are areas where they excel, and areas where they really aren’t very good. We all have these. The best thing to do is to admit what you’re NOT good at, and find someone who is good to help you! There is nothing wrong with admitting that. In fact, I admire people who do it.

I’m not going to get specific because everyone is good at different things. I just thought I’d start the reflection process for others as Dave started it for me. What are you good at? What are your areas of suckage? Are you trying to convince others that you’re really good at something you’re not? Why?

Andrea James
President