This week’s exercise is about finding creativity in opposites. It is often said that opposites attract.  Let’s see if this week’s exercise in opposites can attract you to create a response to our puzzle? Here is how it works:

The following four words have been chosen randomly.  Your assignment is to pick two of the four words that you believe to be opposite and explain the basis for your choice?  Start with four, narrow to two opposites, and tell us why.

Random Words:

• magician
• storm
• spine
• hook

On your marks, get set, create!

Wanna Know A Secret?  Secret is smart enough for a man, but made for a woman… Wait, wrong secret.  If you have an iphone, you may be interested in learning these 40 secret iphone features that can elevate you closer to full ninja status.  Swiping, synching, flagging, emoji, vibration and more.

Take A Flying Leap – 2012 is a leap year.  Wonder why we have leap year?  This article will tell you why, how it came about, what is significant about it, and more.  Even better, it does it in an infographic – oooohhh pictures!

Where There is A Will… Ooo Look a Butterfly! – Are distractions a problem for you?  In this digital age it can be really easy to be really distracted which can be really maddening because you really get nothing done if all you do is bounce really quickly from site to site to site all day long.  Really!  If this is a problem for you, focus your attention on this article from Harvard Business Review about using willpower to overcome distraction and accomplish things.

The Missing Link – Over 50 Million people in the United States use LinkedIn.  Still, the platform remains a mystery to many.  If you are wondering about the merits of LinkedIn, check out this snazzy infographic that gives you a very informative overview of the platform, its users and its potential users.

Exercise Your Brain - Want your brain to perform better.  Well reading this blog will help.  Mix in some books, ted talks, and a good night’s sleep and you will be on your way.  Really want to kick your brain into gear.  Well, get off your couch and run.  According to this article from The New York Times, exercise can help your brain perform at a higher level and for longer periods of time.

That’s all for this week.  From everyone here at The Ohlmann Group, have a great weekend!

Over the holiday season, the Salvation Army went digital after recognizing that not as many people carry cash and change to make their red kettles jingle, adding the possibility of donating through the mobile app Square as well as having the original bell ringers at your local convenience store.

This morning, I was intrigued by an article in the USA Today about more than 70 Episcopal parishes in 18 states offering “Ashes to Go” today, Ash Wednesday. The opportunity to receive ashes at bus stops and local landmarks is now available. There is a website and even a Facebook page with location listings and photos for this movement.

Are your products available for purchase online? If you join Etsy, they could be. Have you added your restaurant to OpenTable so people can make reservations on their phones? Put your photography on Pinterest for the world to pin your portraits?

Simple steps can open your business up to a whole new audience. It’s just a matter of convenience.

Sailing is much like Selling.  When the market is favorable, competition is limited, and you are the only game in town, sales can simply happen.  In perfect conditions, it is easy to assume that sales is simple – to believe that by just showing you can keep the pipeline full and the work flowing in.  What makes for great sales organizations is the ability to constantly monitor the environment and respond properly – making adjustments, asking questions, and doing the hard work needed to move forward.

Becoming an expert takes practice, patience, and resiliency.  A skilled sailor constantly monitors the changing environment and knows how to respond properly.  A stiff headwind, rough seas, or a challenging current present challenges, but these challenges are not insurmountable to an expert.  Similarly, a sales professional does not overcome objections by arguing with a prospect to make the sale, nor do they panic and return to shore.  Rather, one must use that headwind to an advantage by slightly changing direction, altering course, and moving a little less linearly towards the desired destination.  In the end persistence, patience, and skill will move you forward.

On a perfect day, both sails and sales look very easy to manage.  What is important to remember is that most of the 365 days of the year are far from perfect, and standing on the shore waiting for conditions to be just right will get you nowhere.  Professionals learn by doing – everyday.

The exercise goes like this:

Below are 5 words chosen at random.  Your goal is to state the 6th word – the connector.  What one word in the English language is best suited as a connection to all 5 of the others?  This one is wide open for interpretation, so make it your own share your answer with us in the comments.

The Random Words Are:

• Hammer
• Corporation
• Applause
• Muscle
• Lunch

The connection is up to you.

Enjoy, create, and have a wonderful week.

I was working on being more creative, honest! – In the event you spend the weekend partying your time away, well here is the article for you.  Turns out you can justify your hedonistic behavior with this little jem from Lifehacker that discusses how being drunk and or tired can help you be creative?  Well, if nothing else it provides a creative excuse for your behavior.

Totally Random, well… almost – Turns out this week is random acts of kindness week.  Now for the sticklers out there, dedicating a week to something means it is no longer random, but it is a good reason to do something nice. Learn more about it here.

Help, I’m Stuck – If you work in a job where you have to create, you may be familiar with the idea of being stuck.  Good news.  Here is an awesome little piece called Get Unstuck that is loaded up with practical advice to help you get moving again.

That’s What She Said – Ever looking for that perfect little quote that sums up a big idea?  Well one of the best places to find big ideas is TED and they have been kind enough to put together a collection of great TED quotes.

Original Thinking – Looking for some original ideas?  What better way to get them than by looking at other people’s ideas.  Check out this collection of 20 Fresh and Creative Advertising Ideas.

On behalf of the Ohlmann Group, have a wonderful, creative, and fun weekend.

Yesterday I had the privilege of presenting to the Association of Fundraising Professionals on the topic of branding.  While I had, had months to prepare as is par for the Richard Kaiser course of chaos…there were multiple last minute tweaks to the presentation.  Even today as I look back, there are still things that I am kicking myself in the butt for.  The thing that is most prevalent in my mind, is the same thing that I’ve been meaning to say to them for years.  I have oftened dreamed of the oppertunity to stand up upon my soapbox and shout with all the air in my lungs “STOP ACTING LIKE NON-PROFITS”.

I never understood the concept of being broke all the time.  Why weren’t they investing into marketing?  Clearly, marketing makes companies grow, so therefore it would also benefit their organizations to create a level of awareness for themselves, drive contributions up, and help more people because of it…..so why weren’t they doing it?

It has bothered me for years and it really wasn’t until I was discussing the ins and outs of the presentation with my host that I realized that it’s not their fault.  Most of those within these organizations didn’t come from the business world.  Clearly they are driven by far more noble reasons than my selfish pursuit of world domination.

During the presentation, I brought up my experiences of venturing out into “the real world” post college and the trends of I noticed, which I referred to as the Madison Avenue VS. Silicon Valley paradigm.  Several years ago, there weren’t marketing people at the tech shows, just as there weren’t tech nerds at the marketing events.  And all the while, tech demands were being put onto the “Mad Men” and tech start ups were struggling to differentiate their products and get them to market.  Both of these industries needed eachother, but they didn’t really know it.

As I reflect today, I am suddenly realizing the irony of this situation.  I stood there and explained to them the importance of them reaching out and telling their story.  I told them that they needed to have blogs on their websites, that they needed to be utilizing Facebook to share their message with younger demographics.

I repeated verbatim the 4ME marketing method developed by David Bowman.  I explained that they all knew their message, I broke down the types of media into silos, and I stressed the importance of measurement to use their dollars as effectively as they could.  I went into how even having all of those pieces working together and repeating it over and over and over and over and over and over….still wasn’t enough.  They needed to have MEANING!  Which I explained that all of them have this, but it is something that most for-profits struggle with.

At the beginning of the presentation I explained that branding IS NOT their logo, it is not their brand identity, it is not their color pallette…what it absolutely IS….is the gut reaction from people when they hear the name of an organization.  Wal-mart = Corporate Bully;  McDonalds = Cholesterol Kings; Apple = Innovative; Tom’s Shoes = AMAZING!  Branding has so much more to do with feelings and emotions than on the product or service.

So all of that was said to get me to this point (I’m sorry, I’m kind of wordy sometimes):

I think that the next revolution that we need to get to is much the same as the Madison Avenue VS. Silicon Valley.  Businesses need to have meaning, and non-profits need some business knowledge (and dollars)…..you need each other.  This is something that we push our clients towards.  We try to get them involved on boards, at events, et cetera.  Perhaps, it is time that the non-profits started to do the outreach.  Not just the big giants need to be involved, but also the local mom and pop shops.

For your next fashion show, why not use Price Stores for the men’s wear?  Habitat why don’t you hit up Reqauth for some supplies or volunteers…then take photos so that they can upload them to their blog, FB, Twitter, et cetera?

The biggest thing is to utilize the power that you have.  While you don’t have huge marketing budgets…a lot you have great lists of contacts….why not run a direct mail campaign with a local company “check out our FB or go to [insert company]‘s website for your chance to win [insert prize]“.  It would make them look super good, you would both get some impressions, and most importantly….you’re using traditional media to drive traffic to online conversations, which means that you’re training people to start going to your website.

Alright, technically I’m on vacation right now, but my girlfriend was nice enough to let me have my laptop back for a minute to post this.  So real quick final thought.  If you want things to change at your non-profit, you need to do something about it:

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It’s not.”  +Dr. Seuss

A Hallmark commercial makes you cry. A Bud Light advertisement makes you laugh. But, when’s the last time you were moved by a website?

To the consumer, the website is too often just a place to get information. A collection of headers and tabs getting us from Point A to Point B. To those of us on this side of the business, it’s fonts and colors and graphics and AVI and HTTP and PNG and VRML and, well, OMG!

As the new “broadcast” guy on the block in this extremely web-centric group of people here at The Ohlmann Group, I’m amazed at all the deep thought and high-level discussions that go into building a website.

And, I’m even more amazed that all that cold tech-talk can lead to a completed project as warm and moving as the City of Dayton’s brand new “Welcome Dayton” website, positioning our hometown as an “Immigrant Friendly City,” and laying out a virtual “welcome mat” for our city.

Real people tell real stories about their immigrant experience in Dayton. A young man who fled Castro’s Cuba to become one of the area’s most respected business leaders. A South African woman who was exiled for fighting apartheid. An Algerian family whose ticket to a new life here started with a nationwide lottery ticket 5000 miles away.

It just makes you feel good.

And that’s a refreshing reminder to all of us what a website can do.

You may not be selling something as noble and inspiring as The American Dream. You may be selling refrigerators or shoes or nuts and bolts. But we know you still have a story. And people like a good story.

Enjoy some uplifting stories, and feel good for a while at www.welcomedayton.org.