I spent half of my weekend helping actors understand how getting super-focused with their message would help them.

I spend the other half fiddling around with a testimonial randomizer to display Great Stuff About Me in the Sidebar.

The one is so easy, it's ridiculous. I feel like I was made to talk to people about stuff I've learned along the way that will likely help them along their way. Even when I'm exhausted (and I kinda was, this weekend, since I'd started my week out with this annoying cold), I'm exhilerated.

The other is so hard, it's even more ridiculous. Or maybe it's not. Maybe it makes all the sense in the world. Maybe it's still me, doing penance for all the crap I foisted upon the world in the name of marketing. Or rather, that I wasted my time and talents foisting upon the world in the name of marketing. Because let's be fair: it's never been the ads themselves I was against (or most of them, anyway); it was the ratio of effort to output they required. Endless fucking meetings representing tens of thousands of man-hours, and SMART man-hours, because advertising back then really did draw from the best of the creative brain trust, all to figure out which way the bears should dance around the cereal box.

Anyway.

I've done a lot of penance. And I've come to realize that maybe it's important to figure out a way to promote stuff that should be promoted. And maybe, just maybe, I'm some of that stuff. If what I'm doing can help anyone, I owe it to that person not only to be available to help, but to maybe turn a porch light on so they can find me in the dark.

There are 15 rotating porchlights in my far-right sidebar as of Sunday night. If you usually read this via email, or a feed, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could click on through to the blog, then hit "refresh" a few times (or visit some different pages, to trigger the mechanism), and let me know what you think.

You guys know. You're at least as smart as all those people in advertising, and probably smarter. Definitely nicer.

All my love to you this lovely Monday...

xxx
c

Image by rooneg via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.