Creativity should be encouraged and share. Christine Kuhn is one of the most creative people I know. She spoke at TEDLex and had a bunch of great work on exhibit (check out here blog at www.florishstudios.us ) She also works with mentally handicapped students as well. I don’t know her well but I am pretty sure she lives a very fulfilling life….
Christine made a suggestion to me…
How come you don’t call your workshop W5 with the "5" as a superscript. You know W to the fifth?? Just wondering. It’s look cool that way! Happy wedding to you and yours!
Christine
Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.
You don’t even have to have a favorite candidate(s) in mind today, just vote. Voting is a right and a privilege that we should all exercise. If you don’t vote today, you really don’t have a right to complain about high taxes, poor services, unmoral politicians, etc.
Want to get the most out of your work day? Then, get in the groove by doing the following.
Faithfully take 10-15 minutes at the beginning of each day and ask yourself these questions.
Were there any important tasks that I needed to get done yesterday but didn’t?
What do I really NEED to do today even though I don’t look forward to doing it?
Which of my customers most need my attention today?
How can I generate revenue for the business today?
Note that generating revenue is listed fourth. As important as generating revenue is, it cannot be ranked as more important than the other three points.
Attack the day in this order and you will find that you will not only accomplish a lot, but your business will grow and your customers will love you more. And, few things in business are worth more than being loved by your customers.
As we go through life, sometimes we are the customer and sometimes we are the vendor. If we understand which we are at any point in time, we get more accomplished than if we do not understand.
The difference between the two roles is simple.
The customer’s role is to be a good communicator as they describe what it is that they are seeking. Customers who provide a great deal of detail and explanation usually wind up with what they want. Customers who don’t provide this often wind up frustrated and feel that the vendor has let them down. They expect the vendor to read their mind and are disappointed when invariably that does not happen.
The vendor’s role is to (1st) listen to the customer and try to grasp their message. Good listening skill is one of the keys to being a good vendor. The speaking portion of the vendor’s role should be a combination of questions (primarily) to make sure that they understand what the customer wants, and then make some suggestions to try to improve on the final product that the customer will decide on.
Over the past few weeks, I have worked with some great customers. Tiffany at Kentucky Eagle Beer, Dr. Alice Mills at Lexington Hospital for Cats, Susan at VeBridge, Russ at A+ Comics, Kenny/the crew at Impact Graphics and Lori at AdColor are just a few worth mentioning. These are great people to work with because they understand the role of being a customer. If you have a chance to work with any of them, you will enjoy the experience.
I loved Friday’s Tedx Conference. It was great, much needs to go out to everyone who was involved in getting it rolling. I think Kent Lewis was the horse, but there are probably others… GREAT JOB.
The Ted Conference series takes place all over the US. Below is video from one that I found interesting.
Why did I particularly love this event. One word. Passion.
Everyone who spoke, spoke with passion about what they were talking about. I didn’t see a single presenter who wasn’t behind their topic with all of their heart and soul. Some were better speakers then others, but you could tell they were "all in" on their topic.
I won’t recap each speaker, but rather just some of the notes I took down….
"If you are afraid of being wrong, you’ll never make anything good. Kids aren’t afraid of being wrong. A girl was painting a picture of God in art class. The teacher came up and told her that people don’t know what God looks like. The girl replied, "They will when I’m finished."
Sustainlex.org’s Jim Embry asked, how many of you care about rocks? Funny cause I just went rock gathering with Bryan two days ago. I then walked up to him and had to show him my video clip of it…
Jim Bates told the story of how ESPN was spawned in a hot car during the summer. He also told of how now kids aren’t as connected as they were before to sports. They have AA leagues and travel sports, club teams ect. In the old days kids would gather in someones back yard and have to pick teams and resolve the conflicts of "Out or Safe" Now parents are involved and have removed that. Now kids play with extra show-boating to get on sportcenter. (or leave early for the NBA…darn you J.Wall)
Passion.
Stanley Hainsworth talked about how he had spent his whole highly successful career in design to with both nike and starbucks to start his own line. He told everyone in the audience the same thing. Don’t do anything unless it is what you love. Nothing else matters. The guy is mostly bald and has his hair spiked on the sides and back..
These are the kinda events I would like to attend more often…..Great job Lexington!
I just got off of the phone with Adam Martin of Adam Martin designs. Figured I’d spread some love…
I love talking to Adam. He’s in my reverse mentorship program and Adam is out there hustling just like me to help young blood take over Lexington little by little. I’ve known Adam for over 2 years now from all kinds of networking events. He too has a new baby which we often talk about.
A few weeks back Adam posted something that really struck a cord with me.
The two minute version is that Lexington’s beloved horse industry is hurting. ( I know what your thinking, "Oh God Dustin, don’t talk bad about the Horse Industry in Lexington, it’s career suicide) Too bad. My comments are on record on Adams blog.
Bottom line: If the Horse Industry wants/needs to reach a younger demographic, then how are they possibly going to do it with old media, old ad agencies and the old way of marketing? They aren’t. This is why they are hurting so badly now from lack of evolution.
Think I’m wrong? Man or woman up and leave a comment. (or hide because you are afraid of expressing yourself)
Anyway, I wanted to give him some credit for helping with TedX and for getting Will Gay from Yellow Shoes to Lexington.
I was walking with Nola the other day for about an hour. We meandered over to Southland to check out the farmers market and my favorite people at Sloans.
I eat Sloan’s about 3 times a week. Everyone in there knows me. They know me so well that once I sent Jessica in there with my sandwich order and Crissy goes. "Is this for Dustin?" (can you say loyal customer?)
But the fun part is when daddy brings his daughter in there. I had two women drop what they were doing and snatch up Nola. She charmed them up like she always does….I got a sandwich.
Southland Drive speaks to me in a special way. My guess is that over 75% of the businesses are locally owned.
I live behind Lafayette Highschool so working on Southland is a joy. Accept for one thing.
Southland needs a sidewalk. There is no uninterrupted way to get from Rosemont Garden to Nicholasville Rd. I have my paths, but there needs to be a big huge sidewalk all the way down it.
Lexington loves crying about keeping itself Lexington, but they pump money out into areas like Hamburge. I could be in any city in the US when I am out there. No uniqueness, no cool vibe.
Southland has that vibe. Now give us a sidewalk.
note: There was talk of funding for this that I haven’t been keeping up on. I don’t know if it is happening, but if you do know, please let me know.
Just wondering. It’s look cool that way! Happy wedding to you and yours! 
