Brigadoon Weekend
Your weekly dose of the emerging issues + independent thinkers shaping commerce + culture
November 13, 2021
Ross Rant:
Here's a typical exchange I frequently have with an entrepreneur:
They ask me:
"Do I need a communications advisor?"
I respond with this:
"What are you trying to achieve?"
Immediately the entrepreneur is forced to answer what should be a simple question.
But often, the facial expression from our earnest entrepreneur suggests the preparation of complex word salad with little direction and many aspirations as a reply.
So before they can respond as their mind races, I say this:
"Users?
"Talent?
"Funding?
"Attention?
"Thought leadership?"
More painful facial expressions from our hero entrepreneur.
So as a life-preserver, I say:
"Communications is a good strategy, obviously, but the two questions an entrepreneur needs to answer at inception are:
"1) What are the best tactics or tools to achieve my business objectives?
"2) Who is going to execute, manage, and organize whatever tactics or tools are best to achieve my business objectives, an insider (employee) or an outsider (advisor or agency)?"
Calm returns and confident facial expressions from our champion entrepreneur.
So yes, you need a communications advisor.
Communications at the early stage can be constructive.
Communications can help with users.
Communications can help with talent.
Communications can help with funding.
Communications can help with attention.
Communications can help with thought leadership.
A professional communications advisor should ask you a lot of questions.
Like a lot of questions.
If they aren't asking you questions, move on.
If they are just answering your questions, move on.
A professional communications advisor will help you sort out your strategy, identify the best tactics or tools for the communications job, and assist you in organizing your internal team and external vendors.
However, a professional communications advisor cannot make a direct case that this Tweet got users, this interview got talent, or this thought leadership panel discussion got funding.
A professional communications advisor helps set the tone, propels the culture, and secures business objectives - often over time and not due to some one-off, silver bullet communications tactic.
Communications is akin to a vintner working in a vineyard.
Communications is an investment akin to a vintner taking care of pesky weeds, trimming the vines, harvesting the fruit, bottling the juice, and selling the wine.
A vintner cannot bottle a fine wine on day one.
But a vintner can make it much more challenging to bottle a fine wine on day one by not knowing what they are trying to achieve.
-Marc
Five Weekend Reads:
The man who has lived as a hermit for 40 years: For almost 40 years Ken Smith has shunned conventional life and lived without electricity or running water in a hand-made log cabin on the banks of a remote loch in the Scottish Highlands.
BBC
An uber-optimistic view of the future: Azeem Azhar’s new book “Exponential Age” predicts stupendous technology growth will lead to an age of abundance. The reality is more complicated.
David Rotman
Cities that grow themselves: They are spreading like branching plants across the globe. Should we rein cities in or embrace their biomorphic potential?
Josh Berson
At 83, ‘nimblewill nomad’ enters the Appalachian Trail record book: M.J. Eberhart, known by his trail name, hiked into Dalton, MA, and became the oldest known person to hike the more than 2,000 miles of trail from Georgia to Maine.
NYT
The quest for the perfect measure of human progress is distracting: Gross domestic product is a crude way to assess happiness, but those seeking to replace it may be wasting precious time.
Ruchir Sharma
Quote of the Week:
“There are paintings out there that are $100m or more, but if you think about it, it’s really just canvas with paint.”
-- Paris Hilton tells The Guardian she thinks NFTs can replace much of the world of art.
20 songs for this weekend
Tusk - Fleetwood Mac
Abacab - Genesis
Baba O'Riley - The Who
Break It Down Again - Tears for Fears
Out of Touch - Hall & Oates
Raspberry Beret - Prince & The Revolution
How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths
Love Will Tear Us Apart - The Psychedelic Furs
One By One - Stéphane Pompougnac
Already - Rochelle Jordan
La vie - Ichon
Mea Culpa - Brian Eno & David Byrne
Where Were You - Mekons
Rock the Casbah - The Clash
Blue Jean - David Bowie
The Underdog - Spoon
We Went Wild - Lord Huron
Here in After - De La Soul
An Ending (Ascent) - Brian Eno
Listen here.
Brigadoon Events:
Brigadoon Author Talk
Why nature makes us happier, healthier, and more creative
Florence Williams | Author of The Nature Fix
2:00 pm ET | Wednesday, November 17, 2021
$25 - $45 | Brigadoon Members attend free
Sign up today.
Brigadoon Workshop
World 2022 | 7 Elections + 7 Topics
Marc Ross | Global Communications Strategist + CEO Advisor
Wednesday, December 8, 2021 @ 12:00 - 2:00 pm ET
Washington, DC or Virtual
$75.00 - $125.00 | Brigadoon Members receive a discount
Sign up here.
Have a great weekend.
-Marc
Marc A. Ross | Founder + Chief Curator @ Brigadoon
Brigadoon is Global Street Smarts.
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shaping commerce + culture
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