The summit was produced by ReCourses and featured David C. Baker, Blair Enns of Win Without Pitching and Mark O’Brien and Christopher Butler from Newfangled.

See how these grab you:

1. Marketing firms should break their offerings into two distinct pieces: strategy and implementation.
2. Soon, professional services sales people will be primarily content creators.
3. Policies are a great way for new business people to tactfully push back on a prospect’s unreasonable demands.
4. Marketers are willing to give away their ideas for free in a presentation because they love the process of presenting (not because it’s the best way to close business — as we learned, it is not).
5. Your competitors are probably ignoring the “no calls” directive on the RFP.

This is my second summit; I attended the first time in 2009, about 18 months after I started my business. I was familiar with David’s work before well before that, which is what inspired me to consciously choose a narrow positioning for the business right out of the block.

In fact, if you are still at an agency but are planning to open your own firm at some point, I recommend that you study the ReCourses site and meet with David at least once before you embark on that adventure. He will save you from making a lot of unnecessary mistakes and set you up for success. If you’re a new business development person at a marketing firm, show this information to your principal and budget the funds now for both of you to attend in 2013.

Another reason to attend: This experience initiates you into an elite group of open minded, curious, creative, smart and super talented individuals who also are fun to be around and with whom you can share similar stories. Unlike most conferences, I always come home energized by this one (an unusual occurrence for this introvert).

I will be processing the information from the summit on this blog in subsequent weeks, so stay tuned and check out the links above for inspiration and motivation on things you can do to move your marketing firm forward.

The message is: CMOs everywhere are scrambling to find the sweet spot between tech, creative and data. Their goal: To find the “big idea” that will not only “win the day” (think Old Spice Man) but also can be replicated and scaled to attract new consumers and drive sales.

Previously, marketing executives engaged different vendor types to solve what used to be considered different problems – software and web development, data, and creative. Now that those things are inextricably intertwined, it makes sense that buyers would be eager to engage a firm that not only understands the business challenges but who also can design a strategy that integrates all the necessary pieces for success. Including the marketing piece.

But rather than trying to “learn the language of brands” themselves, the smartest consulting and technology firms are acquiring creative shops that already are fluent. If you’re looking to sell your firm, a technology or consulting firm might be a potential buyer.

If not, assuming that your practice is already tightly niched (meaning you have deep expertise in a narrow subject area), the next step is to make sure that you aware of the implications (and potential) of technology and data, not only on your niche but also on your clients.

That means you now need to keep yourself educated about the new choices and/or hire a marketing technologist (a real title) whose job it is to help you develop or identify some tools that provide you with a way to measure – and repeat – the results of your work.

What I wouldn’t do is delay action. The convergence is here.

Present

Recently, Jeff and I went to a restaurant in an unbelievably beautiful casino on the Mohegan Indian reservation in Connecticut. I was fascinated by the juxtaposition of the symbols, soaring ceilings, and the implied natural and the noise, smoke, and acres of flashing lights. The problem was that as I craned my neck to take in the sights, I was not in my body or present to what I was doing, which, according to Jeff was either wandering away or randomly bumping into him. I was at once there but not there. Ironically, the casino environment actually is the perfect place to practice being present as it is designed to transport you away from reality! I lost this time. But it’s a bet I am determined to win when again so challenged!

In-person

I now live one hour from a dear friend whom I’ve known since I was 14 and I saw her less this year than when I was living 14 hours away from her (most of our lives). That is unacceptable. Same goes for new friends here in NJ and elsewhere. This year, I am going to insist we make time to get together for even if it’s for an hour, for coffee.

For me, there’s no substitute for face-to-face conversation and the exploration of ideas and storytelling — it’s the crux of the human experience. And I want that. I believe others do, too, but default to FB, text or email because they are busy and think it’s better than nothing.

The thing is, being in the physical presence of people you love (and who love you) can feed your soul in a way that endures, a goal that connecting via social media will never enable us to quite achieve. Thus my intention to cultivate more in-person experiences in 2012.

Reclamation

This is the year I will reclaim my personal life and contain the time spent on my business. HBC is nearly five years old, highly niched, with clear processes and a solid business model  in place and working. It’s a matter of fine tuning from here on out. As a creative person, however, I’m getting restless!

According to ReCourses’ David C. Baker and Win Without Pitching’s Blair Enns, most creatives who own businesses rely on the business to provide that creative outlet. They say that’s a mistake, and I agree. My job this year is to build a rich and fascinating personal life outside of work that will meet that need. This will include playing out more, taking bass lessons (and practicing), and finishing my novel and possibly even writing a new one. I also want to revisit my crafty side starting with a return to knitting, which I want to make my default tired-brain activity because I actually will end up with something to show for that time!

So there are my three words for 2012: Present, In-Person and Reclamation. Blog yours and leave a link in the comments. Cheers!