If you've read my blog any time over the last year, you have been privy to a random list of things that go on in my head. Blog posts usually arise out of me needing a warm up for the day. You have seen singers warm up with scales. For a writer, at least for me, blog posts are a tool, one of many, that I can use. It's much more stream of consciousness than anything else I do, and I break a lot more grammar rules than any client work I do, but I also know I don't have a million readers I'm offending, so I think it's really okay.
So I was thinking about, this is sort of weird, thinking. My job involves a lot of thinking. I like that part. It's something I get paid for, because thinking leads to ideas. My clients want ideas. Actually, they have ideas. They want good ideas, and great ideas if they are good at their jobs, and my clients are. So let's just say they all want great ideas, and they want me to help them do them. Since my job is to DO these ideas, it's important to me that the ideas are not only good, but they're doable, and have a good probability of success. I also like it when they can be fun to do, or when it allows me project budgets that I can get creative with, but a good idea is a good idea, and coming up with them is not always easy.
Just having a good idea is the first level, but that's no guarantee that it's going to work. Since clients want results, not flashy executions that cost a lot of money and that might be fun to do: they want real results, so you have to think things through. It can't always be rushed. Sure, you can be on a call or in a meeting and get a good idea. That does happen all the time, but a lot of times those good ideas end up not being that good of an idea. It's certainly something else to think about.
So, if you're still with me, cool. There is a point to this post. The cool thing about having "think time" is it's what makes the difference between a successful marketing or communication program or an okay one. I am fortunate to have great clients that value the strategy part of business. That's the fun part. When you are being strategic, it's not a chase, it's an avid and deliberate pursuit. That's fun. It gives you something to measure too. I have great clients who think in goals and objectives and strategies and tactics. That's how I think too, so it works out. I like that I do get paid to think, not on an hourly basis, per say, but more the value side of the equation. It's why lawyers can charge $300 an hour or why photographers charge $2000 a day to take pictures. It's the value thing. Mine's idea-related value.
I like that there's no hard labor involved in thinking, which is not to be confused with thinking hard. There is such a thing as thinking hard, or having it BE hard to think of something good. But there are ways to get around that, and professional thinkers know them. I have my own. Everyone does. The best part about thinking (and the thing I think most people forget), is you can think all the time. One might say you really should. Not about work, so much, but just about whatever. It's important to be present in the moment, but there's also a lot of your brain that can be thinking without you really being tuned into it. Even in yoru sleep. I think I learned to play bridge in my sleep last night. I had read about it in depth last week, and last night I think I dreamed I played. Now I know how to play. That's what's cool. The brain is really amazing.
I hope it's not just me,but when you are thinking, it's important to write things down. Otherewise, again I hope this isn't just me, you will forget your ideas. That's because when you learn to think, you come up with all sorts of stuff. Weird, random stuff sometimes. It might be valuable, it might not. It's best to just write things down. I get ideas every day that I do write down. Most are for clients. Some are not. In fact, a lot are probably just random ideas that I write down out of habit. I find scribblings all the time on bank slips or other pieces of paper out of my car, and in my phone, random stuff: scenes for screenplays labeled only, "tuna sandwich and bad Spanish scene." I have no idea what that really means. I know what it's for, but I have no idea what the scene is about, although at one point I apparently thought of something I thought was a good enough to write down. I need to write more detail with some ideas, because even the good ones can be fleeting. Memory is a funny thing.
I thought of an awesome idea for a screenplay about a young bridge player. It's hilarious. I have the casting figured out and everything. Of course someone needs to write it, and it's in my head, so that would seem to need to be me, but I don't have a lot of time or any one willing to pay my mortgage for me while I write the screenplay. That's an example of a great idea that will hang around a while. I may try to do it, or find someone to help me do it, but that's a side issue...
Today my great idea was to start a business to provide college search services, and even expanded beyond that, to include scholarship identification and applications. I'd like to own that business, but maybe not work at it. I searched the term, and people are doing it. I think it's really interesting. I'm doing it pro bono, and there's nothing horrible about the process. It would be harder to do for someone else, but not impossible. I really have let my son lead the process, so that would be the same with just about any client. I have to think about it a little more. I like the idea. After all, I've learned how to do this, mostly because I had time to think about how to do it. I also had an assistant who really has been helpful in organizing all the hundreds of pieces of information related to everything from testing to transcripts to scholarship deadlines and individual college brochures and applications. I have my son driving the process and saying, "Yes, No, Hey Mom Look at THIS." We've done a lot. Probably more than most. I see it as another way to make money, because money you don't spend is money you make. I have justified spending time on this because that is how I THINK about it. What "normal" parent has time to do this? I hope all, but I know not many. If you're about to fork over $100-$150,000 of your money over the next four years on college (or go into debt or whatever) why not pay someone SOMETHING to help you and make sure you are getting everything you need to get and are doing everything you should do? It's a good idea. Maybe even a great one. Perhaps even viable. We'll see. If you want to work in that business, call me.
A final thought about thinking: the best thing about thinking is it can be done while you do other things, and it doesn't have to be done "at work." You can think while you drive, while you listen to music, while you walk a dog or do laundry. It can be done while you're cooking, but I don't recommend it. I've tried it. I avoid thinking about anything other than cooking when I'm cooking. There are just too many dangers: measurements, knives, hot burners. Cooking takes concentration, and for me it's fun in itself, so if I'm going to cook I'm going to enjoy that and not waste that time thinking. The reality, however, is that I don't get to cook very often. I'm usually writing away or thinking about something totally unrelated to cooking and someone in my house begins whining about STARVING. So then there's no time for a trip to the store for the fresh ingredients that Rachael Ray or Southern Living recommends, we can't have a child DYING on the floor from starvation, so we throw some burgers on the grill or (I have teenage boys) steaks under the broiler, and we go for easy to bake or microwave stuff that comes straight out of the freezer. I hate thinking about that. At least we recycle. We go through a lot of cardboard. I don't like thinking about that either, but I do. A lot. Again, I'm sure, more than most.
Last year I was thinking a lot about product packaging. I even wrote a post about it. Some companies are doing things differently now, probably driven more by cost than waste. Oreo, for example, took my advice (I have to think) and changed their packaging. There is far less waste now.
Okay, enough of this thinking about thinking, especially since it's lunch time and now Im thinking about food. It's funny how the mind works. It's amazing and definitely something to think about.
Now get back to work!
