Jeff Bridges On Zen Buddhism And ‘The Big Lebowski’

Jeff Bridges On Zen Buddhism And ‘The Big Lebowski’

We talk with actor Jeff Bridges about Zen Buddhism and “The Big Lebowski.”

Actor Jeff Bridges at a cast reunion celebrating “The Big Lebowski” 

Limited Edition Blu-ray release (AP)

Academy award-winning actor Jeff Bridges has seventy films under his belt – Crazy Heart, True Grit, The Fabulous Baker Boys, and many more.
But his 1998 cult classic The Big Lebowski keeps coming back to him, and a lot of others.  Bridges played the Dude – a laid-back soul in the midst of utter mayhem.  Fans saw a cool hipster.
American Zen master Bernie Glassman saw a kind of natural Buddhist, finding the flow in crazy times.  Now they’re pals.  And ready to share.
This hour On Point:  Jeff  Bridges and the Zen Buddhist join us.  The Dude and the Zen master.

- Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Jeff Bridges, Oscar-winning actor, songwriter and cofounder of the End Hunger Network. He is co-author of “The Dude and the Zen Master.”
Bernie Glassman, social activist and longtime Zen teacher. He is co-author of “The Dude and the Zen Master.”

From Tom’s Reading List

The New York Times: “The Dude and the Zen Master” is an incomplete and spotty guide to Zen philosophy. And there’s actually not much Lebowski here. But sometimes the Lebowski and the Buddhism mix in a helpful way.
Los Angeles Times: The Dude abides: Jeff Bridges to co-write book of Zen teachings.

Book Excerpt

Pages 20-26 from THE DUDE AND THE ZEN MASTER
by Jeff Bridges and Bernie Glassman
Bernie: People get stuck a lot because they’re afraid to act; in the worst case, like the master bowler, we get so attached to some end result that we can’t function. We need help just to move on, only life doesn’t wait.
Jeff: And it doesn’t help to say, I’ve got to have a mind- set with no expectations, because that’s also an expectation. So you can get into a spinning conundrum.
Bernie: There’s a little ditty that sort of sums this up.
Jeff: Hit me with it.
Bernie: Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily. Life is but a dream.
Imagine that you’re rowing down a stream and you’re trying to figure out how to do it. Do I first row with the right oar and then with the left, or is it the other way around? What does my shoulder do, what does my arm do? It’s like Joe, the centipede with a hundred legs, trying to figure out which leg to move first.
Jeff: Art Carney of the centipedes.
Bernie: He can’t get anywhere, just like the person in the rowboat. And while he’s hung up with all those questions, the stream is pulling him on and on. So you want to row, row, row your boat—gently. Don’t make a whole to-do about it. Don’t get down on yourself be- cause you’re not an expert rower; don’t start reading too many books in order to do it right. Just row, row, row your boat gently down the stream.
Jeff: Merrily, merrily.
Bernie: That’s important. An English philosopher said that whatever is cosmic is also comic. Do the best you can and don’t take it so seriously.
Jeff: When I was really young, my mom enrolled me in dance classes. “Mom, I’m too young to dance,” I told her. She kind of forced me, but I ended up loving it, and after the first lesson I came back and said, “Come on, Mom, I’ll show you the box step.” That introduced me not just to dancing but also to working with someone without having a goal; after all, you’re not going any- where, you’re just dancing. Years later, whenever she sent me off to work, she’d always say, “Remember, have fun, and don’t take it too seriously.” So I have this word for much of what I do in life: plorking. I’m not playing and I’m not working, I’m plorking. You know, play doesn’t have to be a frivolous thing. You may think of a Beethoven symphony as something serious, but it’s still being played. I think Oscar Wilde said that life is too important to be taken seriously.
Bernie: I always have this red nose in my pocket, and if it looks like I’m taking things too seriously, or the person I’m talking to is taking them too seriously, I put the nose on. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing or talking about, it doesn’t matter if we agree or disagree, the nose changes everything.
Jeff: Clownsville, man. Tightness gets in the way of everything, except tightness.
Bernie: You can’t get arrogant or pompous with a nose. I always tell people that if you get upset over what someone says, imagine him or her with a clown’s nose on and you won’t get so angry. Merrily, merrily. Our work may be important, but we don’t take it too seriously. Otherwise, we get attached to one relatively small thing and ignore the rest of life. We’re creating a little niche for ourselves instead of working the whole canvas.
Another thing about Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. There are different streams. Some- times you come to a fall and sometimes you come to white water. Your rowing has to adapt to the situation. You can’t do the same stroke coming down a small stream as you would coming down Niagara Falls. Even if you’re only rowing down a stream, different things happen: maybe the wind changes, maybe the current, and suddenly everything’s different. So gently is really important. Don’t power yourself or blast through; rock with the way things are. Ask yourself: What’s the deal here? I want to get over there but there are things in the way. How do I flow with the situation? Do I wait or go on? If I wait, do I wait one day, one year, five years? If I go on, do I tack? Bear witness to the situation and have faith that the right thing to do will naturally arise. Other- wise I get stuck and think, I can’t do anything, every- thing’s all wrong.
Jeff: And we take it so seriously! Thoughts will change and shift just like the wind and the water when you’re on the boat, thoughts are no different than any- thing else.
Kevin Bacon and I recently worked on a move together, R.I.P.D. Just before we’d begin a scene, when all of us would feel the normal anxiety that actors feel be- fore they start to perform, Kevin would look at me and the other actors with a very serious expression on his face and say: “Remember, everything depends on this!” It would make us all laugh. On the one hand, it’s not true of course, but on the other, everything does depend on this, on just this moment and our attitude toward this moment. Speaking of boats, there are all kinds. Take a sail- boat, for example. Say I want to sail toward you, only the wind is blowing away from you. If I know how to dance with the wind, I can use its power by sailing this way, then that way, and again this way, till finally I get to you. With rowing, you’re working primarily with your arms and shoulders. But with sailing, you’re making bigger use of the wind and the waves. You’re working with more elements, including with your mind and how it perceives things, instead of relying mostly on your own muscles and—Uh-oh, I’m getting too serious, man. Give me your nose for a second. I need a nose hit. Nostrils go on the bottom, right?
Bernie: If you want to breathe.

January 8, 2013 

Source:  http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/01/08/jeff-bridges

The Serenity Prayer Revised

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; The insight to prioritize wisely what I want to change; The patience to resist trying to control everything I could, had I the energy and time; The courage and skill to change the things I have chosen to change; And the wisdom to know the differences among all these. 

-  Dr. Edward Hallowell,  adaptation of the Serenity Prayer


What choices are you going to make based on the wisdom of your intuition? 

Quotes

"A goodlookin horse is like a good-lookin woman, he said. They’re always more trouble than what they’re worth. What a man needs is just one that will get the job done." 
-Cormac McCarthy

Mimes

Marcel Marceau





































Mime Zack Evil Clown Latex Mask -

Google Adsense testimonial

"Because of Google AdSense, I had an alternative. And instead of an art teacher, I became an artist." Watch Phillip Martin share his AdSense journey.

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 Source:
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Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction

The Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction was created in 1998 by the Modern Library.

The list is what it considers to be the 100 best non-fiction books published since 1900.

The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Brooks Adams topped the list, followed by The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington and A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf.

The list included everything from memoirs (such as those listed above) to text books (such as The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by Keynes or The Elements of Style by Strunk and White) to polemics (like Silent Spring by Rachel Carson or Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King), to collections of essays (such as those of T. S. Eliot or James Baldwin).

A separate list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century was created the same year.
A list chosen by readers was published separately by Modern Library in 1999.

With close to 200,000 votes,
The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand was selected as the best non-fiction book.

Two other titles related to Rand – Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand and Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life – were #3 and #6, respectively. The Reader's Poll has been cited by Harry Binswanger, a longtime associate of Rand and promoter of her work, as representative of "the clash between the intellectual establishment and the American people." 

However, Jesse Walker, writing in Reason magazine, has observed that the Reader's Poll is an example of the unreliability of internet polls and their tendency to overemphasize the opinions of small but especially devoted groups. 

References

1. ^ http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-nonfiction/
2. ^ Harry Binswanger (August 27, 1998). "A Tale of Two Novels". Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. Retrieved February 13, 2012.
3. ^ Jesse Walker (May 17, 2007). "What Internet Polls Are Good For". Reason Magazine. Retrieved February 23, 2012.

External links

• The Modern Library list

 source:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Library_100_Best_Nonfiction

Historic Films Stock Footage Archive

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Albino Peacock and other simple things

Pablo Picasso

My conclusions are drawn from firsthand experience, unlike the scholars who only believe what they read in books written by others. Although I cannot quote from authors in the same way they do, I shall rely on a much worthier thing, actual experience, which is the only thing that could ever have properly guided the men that they learn from. These scholars strut around in a pompous way, without any thoughts of their own, equipped only with the thoughts of others, and they want to stop me from having my own thoughts"
- Leonardo Di Vinci

"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being is not enough. We must do."

- Leonardo di Vinci 





One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.- Leonardo Da Vinci




Crested Grebe

 

  
“ Now to escape involves not just running away, but arriving somewhere. 
― Bernhard Schlink, The Reader

 

Good Pictures

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Being in the moment and living with simplicity optimize happiness and contentment

Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication. 
 - Leonardo da Vinci 

“There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. There will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.” 

 

-Yamamoto Tsunetomo from *Hagakure*: *The Book of the Samurai*

 

 

 Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought. 

 - William Hazlitt said

 

 

Our lives are frittered away by detail; simplify, simplify.

-  Henry David Thoreau said

 

 

 

God is infinitely simple.

 - Thomas Aquinas 

Things should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

- Albert Einstein 

 

 

 

Quakers practice the Testimony of Simplicity

 

 

Occam's razor is about simplicity as a meta-scientific criterion by which to evaluate competing theories

 
"For every complex problem there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong."

 - H. L. Mencken

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To Lead, Create a Shared Vision

by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

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Being forward-looking—envisioning exciting possibilities and enlisting others in a shared view of the future—is the attribute that most distinguishes leaders from nonleaders. We know this because we asked followers.
In an ongoing project surveying tens of thousands of working people around the world, we asked, “What do you look for and admire in a leader (defined as someone whose direction you would willingly follow)?” Then we asked, “What do you look for and admire in a colleague (defined as someone you’d like to have on your team)?” The number one requirement of a leader—honesty—was also the top-ranking attribute of a good colleague. But the second-highest requirement of a leader, that he or she be forward-looking, applied only to the leader role. Just 27% of respondents selected it as something they want in a colleague, whereas 72% wanted it in a leader. (Among respondents holding more-senior roles in organizations, the percentage was even greater, at 88%.) No other quality showed such a dramatic difference between leader and colleague.
This points to a huge challenge for the rising executive: The trait that most separates the leaders from individual contributors is something that they haven’t had to demonstrate in prior, nonleadership roles. Perhaps that’s why so few leaders seem to have made a habit of looking ahead; researchers who study executives’ work activities estimate that only 3% of the typical business leader’s time is spent envisioning and enlisting. The challenge, as we know, only escalates with managerial level: Leaders on the front line must anticipate merely what comes after current projects wrap up. People at the next level of leadership should be looking several years into the future. And those in the C-suite must focus on a horizon some 10 years distant.
So how do new leaders develop this forward-looking capacity? First, of course, they must resolve to carve out time from urgent but endless operational matters. But even more important, as leaders spend more time looking ahead, they must not put too much stock in their own prescience. This point needs to be underscored because, somehow, through all the talk over the years about the importance of vision, many leaders have reached the unfortunate conclusion that they as individuals must be visionaries. With leadership development experts urging them along, they’ve taken to posing as emissaries from the future, delivering the news of how their markets and organizations will be transformed.
Bad idea! This is not what constituents want. Yes, leaders must ask, “What’s new? What’s next? What’s better?”—but they can’t present answers that are only theirs. Constituents want visions of the future that reflect their own aspirations. They want to hear how their dreams will come true and their hopes will be fulfilled. We draw this conclusion from our most recent analysis of nearly one million responses to our leadership assessment, “The Leadership Practices Inventory.” The data tell us that what leaders struggle with most is communicating an image of the future that draws others in—that speaks to what others see and feel.
Buddy Blanton, a principal program manager at Rockwell Collins, learned this lesson firsthand. Blanton asked his team for some feedback on his leadership, and the vast majority of it was positive and supportive. But he got some strong advice from his team about how he could be more effective in inspiring a shared vision. One of his direct reports said to him, “You would benefit by helping us, as a team, to understand how you got to your vision. We want to walk with you while you create the goals and vision so we all get to the end vision together.”
As counterintuitive as it might seem, then, the best way to lead people into the future is to connect with them deeply in the present. The only visions that take hold are shared visions—and you will create them only when you listen very, very closely to others, appreciate their hopes, and attend to their needs. The best leaders are able to bring their people into the future because they engage in the oldest form of research: They observe the human condition.

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James M. Kouzes (jim@kouzes.com) is the Dean’s Executive Professor of Leadership, and Barry Z. Posner (bposner@scu.edu) is the dean of the Leavey School of Business, at Santa Clara University. They are the coauthors of The Leadership Challenge and over a dozen other books on leadership, including A Leader’s Legacy, Credibility, and Encouraging the Heart. 





 Source:
http://hbr.org/2009/01/to-lead-create-a-shared-vision/ar/1 




 

The Best Productivity Tips

15 Psychology Experts Share Their Best Productivity Tips

Experts share their favorite tips for being productive.

Published on March 11, 2013 by Alice Boyes, Ph.D. in In Practice

 

 

I asked a group of busy psychology experts to share their best tip for being productive and beating procrastination. Here's what they said.

Take breaks from your desk to stimulate your productivity.  "Walk Away: Without realizing it, I spent years trying to be productive in the most unproductive way--sitting at a desk for hours. Now I 'walk away' from my office after a few hours (or less). Moving, if only to get a cup of coffee, water a plant, or walk outside for five minutes, made me sharper and more focused.  With short breaks, improvement in concentration and productivity soars. Try it."  - Susan Newman, Ph.D.

 

Don't be afraid to close your door.  "There are a couple, seemingly simple things that I do to ensure that I am productive. The first is simply closing my door at the office! Although I am extremely welcoming, I am often approached by colleagues, peers, and students about various topics ranging from sports to clinical considerations. Closing my door ensures that I remain productive. Second, I schedule "avoided" tasks; when I block out time (and get reminded on ALL of my Apple devices), this ensures that I engage in productive action. Action precedes motivation; these small steps facilitate more action and lead to me feeling accomplished." - L. Kevin Chapman, Ph.D. 

The George Washington Method. "I use the 'George Washington Method', which I learned from one of my literature professors in college. Washington, a farmer, always carried a portable sundial with him. His method entails picking an arbitrary point deemed 'Noon' and moving forward in segments from there, keeping your focus only in the 'hour' in which you are working. The White House cleaning staff still use this method today." - Michael J. Formica, MS, MA, EdM.

Stress relief helps reduce distractibility. "Plan exercise breaks: stress leads to binary (either/or) thinking, distractability, and procrastination. Taking time to reduce stress enhances productivity by keeping you sharp and boosting your capacity for creative problem-solving." - Craig Malkin, Ph.D.


Buck conventional wisdom if something else works better for you. "I think you really have to know yourself. For example, conventional wisdom says to do your most important task first; however, I find that if I start with a few easy tasks, I feel better and get on a roll because I get something checked off my list right away. Then, I'm motivated to tackle the harder things." - Barbara Markway, Ph.D.


The Pomodoro Technique. "When I don't want to do something, or my confidence is low, I use a productivity technique called The Pomodoro Technique. You set a timer for 25 minutes of work, then take a five minute break, then set the timer again. I know I can do anything for 25 minutes (and starting is the hardest part) so it works great for me. For more information: PomodoroTechnique" - Heidi Reeder, Ph.D.

Work until you complete one chunk. "I'm most productive if think in terms of getting a task done as opposed to spending a set amount of time on it. Most people allocate a certain amount of time to a task; I do the opposite. I break the task down into doable chunks and then work until that chunk is done. So, if I'm working on an article for Psychology Today, instead of saying, "I'm going to work for an hour on it," I say, "I'm going to work until I have a first draft done." If that draft is done in 15 minutes, that's when I stop working; if it's done in an hour, that's when I stop working. I take the same approach to gardening and other household tasks." - Toni Bernhard, J.D.

Make a plan to deal with unresolved issues to free up your cognitive resources. Outstanding minor complaints (e.g., having to call a customer service hotline to dispute a charge) often nag at us for days when they remain unresolved, and interfere with our ability to be productive in the moment. Making a plan to address the issue (e.g., deciding on a specific time to make the call later) will quiet the nagging, free up our intellectual and emotional resources, and maximize our productivity in the moment. - Guy Winch Ph.D.

A shitty first draft. "My top productivity tip for blogging, and for all writing challenges, is: Write a shitty first draft. This advice comes from Anne Lamott's book on writing, Bird by Bird, and I bring it to mind every time I write the first draft of a blog. It's so freeing and motivating to tell myself, "Just write a shitty first draft now and make it great later!" - Meg Selig, Ph.D.


Use conditioning techniques. "Work in a place that you associate with work, such as an office building or library.  Don't try to work on something that requires sustained attention in the place where you play and relax, such as your bedroom or family room.  Your surroundings set the stage for your focus--if they are associated with work, you will focus on work." - Amy Przeworski, Ph.D.


Use an app to cut yourself off from the internet. "If you’re like me, you dip in and out of social media and e-mail all day while doing bigger tasks. There’s a fabulous Firefox plug-in called Freedom that prevents your computer from connecting to the internet for a programmed period of time, thereby removing temptation and allowing you to focus. If completely going off the grid is too limiting (or too scary!), LeechBlock is another handy tool that allows you to block specific sites at certain times." - Beth Buelow, ACC, CPC

Small blocks of time. "My biggest challenge is finding blocks of time to do tasks that are labor intensive. Now I break things up into segments. I start with half the time I need; an hour becomes 30 mins, 15 mins becomes 7. Anything to begin! This makes hard tasks more digestible, and less likely for me to procrastinate on. Once something is started, I have more motivation to finish it." - Geralyn Datz, PhD.


Passion. "You may not always be able to choose the projects on which you work, yet when you do have a choice (e.g., of college major, range of assignments our boss needs helps with, committee memberships), go with that which you are most interested. Being passionate about what I do means that juggling the demands of teaching, writing, mentoring students, conducting research, and serving on committees is not necessarily always effortless, but certainly gratifying." - Kristine Anthis, Ph.D.

Put your phone away when you really need to get something done. "I’m most productive when I eliminate as many distractions as possible and focus on one time-limited project.  When I really need to get something done, I close my web browser and my email program, put my smartphone in my purse and give all my attention to the task at hand: the less multitasking, the better." - Gloria M. Miele, Ph.D.





Don't overestimate how much you can get done in your available time. If you plan to do an unrealistic number of tasks, you'll end up dreading the day ahead. Before I get out of bed, I mentally identify one important task that I will judge the day's success by. I prioritize this task and any small but critical time sensitive tasks. - Alice Boyes, Ph.D.




 Alice Boyes, Ph.D. translates principles from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and social psychology into tips people can use in their everyday lives.



You can read my prior articles for Psychology Today here.

Alice's Twitter @DrAliceBoyes 

photo credits:  Clouds, Brighton, Pink Sherbet Photography, Ajith (അജിത്ത്) via photopin cc



 Source:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-practice/201303/15-psychology-experts-share-their-best-productivity-tips?page=2 

Strategic Planning Made Simple

Strategic planning doesn't have to be hard. Here's how.

 

Published on January 30, 2010 by Jennell Evans in Smart@Work

 

 

 

In the workplace, the words "strategic plan" tend to either energize people or drain them, depending on their past experience with the discipline.

As an organizational development consultant, I often speak with workplace leaders about the value of having a simple strategic plan that aligns people and processes to achieve shared goals.

Sounds like common sense, right? Doesn't every organization have one? No, and it got me thinking about why some companies and nonprofits do not have one.

I think misperceptions about what is involved in creating a practical and effective strategic plan can create false barriers to undertaking the process. Some of those misperceptions may be rooted in business practices that were popular many years ago. In the 70's and 80's, during the peak of the TQM (total quality management) movement, people would spend hours upon hours developing lengthy, detailed 5+ year strategic plans that often ended up in someone's files, never to be seen again. Strategic planning was not sexy, and more likely viewed as a dull, laborious task that quickly became outdated. Once the "Strategic Planning Box" was officially checked, people continued to work in silos, focus on their area of responsibility, and individual to-do list.

In the 90's, the speed of organizational change revved up to a pace that dictated strategic plans be shorter and relevant for just 6-12 months. Later, during the dot-com era, strategic planning became almost non-existent or perhaps too "old-school" to be perceived as adding any value to an organization. Some of the brilliant high tech start-ups might have ended up very differently if they had developed a strategic plan to bring their concepts to reality in the marketplace.

Fast forward to 2010. The economic downturn has provided time for leaders to reflect, recalibrate, and strategize for the future. What made organizations successful in the past may not be what will keep them successful in the future. Today, more organizations appear to be taking time to develop simple strategic plans as an inclusive process, and one that may combine the best of all lessons learned from the past.

I've worked with organizations that have benefited greatly from even a plan with just six core elements defined:

1. Vision 
2. Mission
3. Core Values
4. Strategic Areas of Focus 
5. Strategic Goals
6. Action Plans

Simple strategic plans can be created collaboratively, updated frequently, and most importantly, implemented to ensure a R.O.I. In future blogs, I will expand on the core components of the simple strategic plan concept and share some real life examples of vision statements, core values, and more.





 Source:
 http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/smartwork/201001/strategic-planning-made-simple

Quotes

The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing.
- Eric Berne



"Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential."
- John Maxwell



Proverbs often contradict one another, as any reader soon discovers. The sagacity that advises us to look before we leap promptly warns us that if we hesitate we are lost; that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but out of sight, out of mind.
-  Leo Rosten

7 Lessons Digital Marketers Can Learn from Martha Stewart

 Martha Stewart is a brilliant marketer, founder, and executive who founded a company and took it public while staying CEO, putting her in the company of entrepreneurs like Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, Marc Benioff, and Howard Schultz.

 Martha is a brilliant marketer.   In this interview, she talks about her approach to technology and how her business adapts to the ever changing digital world.   She knows about new technology and is  committed to embracing what’s new.

1. Follow Customers – Not Technology Religion

“You have to be where the customer is. And that’s been another very important part of our business – try to be where the customer needs you and wants you… Always try to satisfy the customer.”

Technology will change........  rather than betting on technology, smart marketers should figure out how to deliver value propositions to their audience across these technologies.

As Cisco says in their Approach to Quality:

“No Technology Religion: Because customer satisfaction is our number one priority, Cisco employees are to actively listen, share and explore to ensure we provide the best solutions to meet our customers’ needs.”

2. Tap the Innovation of the Crowd

“We use a lot of Etsy contributors on our show. We go there when we’re looking for a crafter that makes crepe-paper flowers, for example. We go to Etsy and try to find the best.”

Martha Stewart’s team finds the most talented makers on Etsy and crafts with them. 

Why don’t marketers find the most talented content creators amongst their ecosystem and empower them with recognition and a distribution platform? 

Or better yet, hire them?

3. Hire People That Would Do Their Job for Free

across these technologies.
As Cisco says in their Approach to Quality, “No Technology Religion: Because customer satisfaction is our number one priority, Cisco employees are to actively listen, share and explore to ensure we provide the best solutions to meet our customers’ needs.”

2. Tap the Innovation of the Crowd

“We use a lot of Etsy contributors on our show. We go there when we’re looking for a crafter that makes crepe-paper flowers, for example. We go to Etsy and try to find the best.”

Martha Stewart’s team finds the most talented makers on Etsy and crafts with them. Why don’t marketers find the most talented content creators amongst their ecosystem and empower them with recognition and a distribution platform? Or better yet, hire them?

3. Hire People That Would Do Their Job for Free

“Everyone that works at the company is really a do-it-yourselfer.”

If you can, hire people that do their job (or activities related to their job) in their spare time. While it’s easier to find people that are enthusiastic about crafting or cooking than say, enterprise software, everyone can look for the same function-related or industry-related traits.
Do your online marketing managers have a blog or test sites? Do your engineers have github repos or side projects? Do your designers sell their work on ThemeForest? Are your sales people intensely competitive social butterflies? Does your office manager re-organize his or her closet for fun?
It’s too hard to get people excited about a job. Find people who are already excited, and convince them to join you.

4. Use Content Marketing to Build Trust

“We have the magazine – we show how to make the perfect omelet in the magazine. Then on TV, I can also show how to make the perfect omelet. Then we have the video. Then people trust us because our recipes work so well, they also want to have the omelet pan I was using. So why not make the omelet pan? So we design the omelet pan and find the retailer that wants to sell our product.”

While there are at least three great marketing lessons in that quote, let’s focus on the content marketing aspect of Martha Stewart Omnimedia. After they’ve established trust with consumers – by providing written recipes, instructional videos, and other forms of content around the problem they face – they provide an excellent tool.
And perhaps even better, MSO captures a great deal of the margin by partnering for manufacturing and distribution.

5. If Your Content Gets a Positive Response, Go With It

“We have some amazing craft segments on our show which then morph into templates for our website, which morph into instructions on our craft blog, which morph into, ultimately, sometimes products.”

Martha and her team follow their audience – if they see a television segment getting a response, they’ll create templates and instructions for that project. Now their audience can engage even more deeply with their brand and programming – not just enjoying the TV show, but doing the activities in their home.

6. Follow the Law. Closely.

“It didn’t work to go to jail.”

Follow the law to the very best of your ability. This means not just avoiding insider trading, but ensuring compliance with FTC guidelines, getting proper clearance on all of your images, and, yes, going through legal. This also means doing your best to follow the rules of your vendors and partners – it’s not glamorous to get banned from Google, Facebook, or Craigslist either.

7. Invest in the Future

You must invest in the future if you are going to be in the future. That’s very important for all companies to pay attention to. You’re not going to retain your employees if you’re not investing in the future.

Digital marketing today is simply so competitive, if you’re not growing your reach, traffic, and revenue, it’s shrinking. You can invest in the future, or you can be irrelevant. Fortunately, the choice is yours.
- See more at: http://thefuturebuzz.com/2012/05/10/digital-lessons-from-martha-stewart/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheFutureBuzz+%28The+Future+Buzz%29#sthash.nP16PVkO.dpuf

“Everyone that works at the company is really a do-it-yourselfer.”

If you can, hire people that do their job (or activities related to their job) in their spare time. While it’s easier to find people that are enthusiastic about crafting or cooking than say, enterprise software, everyone can look for the same function-related or industry-related traits.

Do your online marketing managers have a blog or test sites? Do your engineers have github repos or side projects? Do your designers sell their work on ThemeForest? Are your sales people intensely competitive social butterflies? Does your office manager re-organize his or her closet for fun?

It’s too hard to get people excited about a job. Find people who are already excited, and convince them to join you.

4. Use Content Marketing to Build Trust

“We have the magazine – we show how to make the perfect omelet in the magazine. Then on TV, I can also show how to make the perfect omelet. Then we have the video. Then people trust us because our recipes work so well, they also want to have the omelet pan I was using. So why not make the omelet pan? So we design the omelet pan and find the retailer that wants to sell our product.”

While there are at least three great marketing lessons in that quote, let’s focus on the content marketing aspect of Martha Stewart Omnimedia. After they’ve established trust with consumers – by providing written recipes, instructional videos, and other forms of content around the problem they face – they provide an excellent tool.


And perhaps even better, MSO captures a great deal of the margin by partnering for manufacturing and distribution.

5. If Your Content Gets a Positive Response, Go With It

“We have some amazing craft segments on our show which then morph into templates for our website, which morph into instructions on our craft blog, which morph into, ultimately, sometimes products.”

Martha and her team follow their audience – if they see a television segment getting a response, they’ll create templates and instructions for that project. Now their audience can engage even more deeply with their brand and programming – not just enjoying the TV show, but doing the activities in their home.

6. Follow the Law. Closely.

Follow the law to the very best of your ability. 
This means not just avoiding insider trading, but ensuring compliance with FTC guidelines, getting proper clearance on all of your images, and, yes, going through legal. This also means doing your best to follow the rules of your vendors and partners – it’s not glamorous to get banned from Google, Facebook, or Craigslist either.

7. Invest in the Future

You must invest in the future if you are going to be in the future. That’s very important for all companies to pay attention to. You’re not going to retain your employees if you’re not investing in the future.

Digital marketing today is simply so competitive, if you’re not growing your reach, traffic, and revenue, it’s shrinking.


 You can invest in the future, or you can be irrelevant.

Fortunately, the choice is yours.









Matt Gratt is an online marketing consultant focused on B2B software and web companies. 


Follow him on Twitter @MattGratt. 
He also writes about marketing, technology, and business on his blog Grattisfaction.














Source:
7 Lessons Digital Marketers Can Learn from Martha Stewart

 http://thefuturebuzz.com/2012/05/10/digital-lessons-from-martha-stewart/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheFutureBuzz+%28The+Future+Buzz%29

Wild West History

 Image by Darla Sue Dollman

 

‎"The Despoblado offers me an immense sanctuary in which to be alone long enough to settle and finally see the underlying truth of humanity that leads to the fact that we cannot love part of life and hate the rest. It is all one body, struggling awake from the deep sleep of sentient matter, moving out of nothing toward the light. We are no better or worse than viral molecules or the whole association of the living world, but we are blessed with the agony of knowing."
---- Jim Bones, "Texas West of the Pecos"

(Spanish explorers used to call the western regions of Texas El Despoblado or the uninhabited land. Despoblado is also used to describe a desert region.)

"If you want to understand today,you have to search yesterday."

--Pearl  Buck