As Robbin mentioned last week, Geno and I were in sunny LA to talk with a big ol’ company that I can’t mention yet. (Yeah, we’re not transparent enough to blow a good lead.)

It’s funny, but when we start on any new project in a different industry, I always realize how little I know about the world. We always tell people that, “We will never pretend to be experts in (enter industry name here). Only in building compelling identities.” Sure, our process allows us to gain knowledge and insight, but not enough to be considered experts in car manufacturing or executive staffing or restaurants or even dry cleaning delivery or lawn care. That’s our clients’ job - and they’ve spent a long time getting where they are.

I just think it’s important to remember that.

A small group of us, including Adam from Orange Coat just met with Marsha and Barb from diningforwomen.org. We are going to help them create a remarkable identity and an online space that will make it easier for them to spread the word about dining for women. Blake, one of our senior designers asked her to say in her own words why this was important to her. She told her story, then at the end paused and said, “I know this sounds corny, but I really want to change the world.”

So here’s a thought, let’s help Marsha change the world. We had a lot of cool ideas this morning. Adam mentioned meetup.com and cafepress.com. We’ll make it easy to tell a friend from the site. Adam is building a site in wordpress, so they can update it often and their passion can shine. The goal is to have 100 working chapters of dining for women up by the end of the year.

There are lot of smart folks reading this blog. So check out her cause, and share your ideas if you’re inclined. We’ll let share too as we update their identity and reflect their soul out to the world. Stay tuned.

BzzAgent. They are doing a lot of things really well. Like self-promotion. I’m intrigued with so many things about this company, so I guess they pass the Fascination Test. I personally think it is very telling that so many people are willing to be agents of buzz, passing their opinions on about products and services. It tells me that people want a voice. And that reassures me in some odd sort of way.

But this 90 Days of supposed transparency is just is about the oddest thing I have ever run across, okay not the oddest, but definitely up there with the oddest of them. Honestly. I LOVE, LOVE it’s original intent. An insider observing some pretty significant changes in a company. (I would have to believe $15 million in capital would get you some pretty big changes, like a group of investors looking over your shoulder.)

But John’s blog doesn’t “feel real to me.” It is all too “clever or edited or something.” AND the comments even seem sort of made up or coached. (Perhaps the 90 Day blog has agents working for it. Seriously read a few.) I can’t put my finger on it.

Dave does a pretty good job with his posts in “the selling the idea” category. I hear a human being there. And I would read more of that.

I have tried hard not to pass judgement or even comment on BzzAgent. Like I said, they are obviously on to something and have found a lot of kindred spirits out in the world, and $15 million dollars. And here I am telling you to check them out. So like I said. It’s working. Sort of, maybe.

Anyway, back at our ranch in REAL TIME. Geno and Spike are in LA as we speak. Walking into a meeting to talk to some folks at a very big company about a new way to bring a product to market. Could be interesting. We just hired two new great people. Megan just dropped a boat load of papers on the floor. And Jenn is laughing on the phone. And Justin finally got around to setting a time to go over his 2006 personal goals with me. And I need to call my friend John back before 5:30 and Marion just went to Williamson Evans to pick up some dubs and we just hung the flag for a new project we get to work on in March and I could go on and on. But I won’t. And oh yeah. It’s not even March and we just hit the half way mark on our new biz goals, the flag is flying!

Man! I have been delinquent lately! Sorry about that.

But here’s something that happened to me this weekend:

I stopped in at a local Bi-Lo one morning to pick up some cat food (my cat was starting to eye me hungrily… so I thought it was time). At any rate, the Bi-Lo at which I stopped is not exactly one of the more desirable locations in town. In fact, if it had been dark, I probably would have driven 10 minutes out of my way just to not go to this particular store. Nonetheless, I paid the bored looking teenager behind the cash register for my cat food, picked up my bags… and he handed me a rose.

What?

Now, I’m not a big flower person, and I’m sure these were just roses left over from old bouquets that they could no longer sell… but it took me completely off guard. I know my fellow BOFers are professed Publix fans, but I haven’t drunk that particular Kool-Aid. To me, groceries are groceries. I don’t care whether the clerks are friendly, I want to pay 3 cents less for my grapefruit juice. But still, I have to admit that that friendly little gesture really did something to my mood.

It just goes to show you that taking the time to make your customers feel special, even in the smallest ways, can leave an impression even on brand cynics like me.

Yes, the Oscars and Emmys and all that are happening, but I’m talking about the Creative Awards Season.

And I wanted to talk briefly about our views on creative awards. Here’s the low down: we’re definitely not the first ones to say this, but we don’t put much stock in them. Oh, don’t get me wrong, we still like to dress up and be loud and have a good time seeing everyone else, but we usually only enter about 20 items in the local show and then one or two items in the national ones. (We’ve seen others enter hundreds of items just so they can say they won the most awards.)

And yes, it’s nice to win - I won’t lie. But is that what it’s all about? Of course not. In fact, my first year at Brains on Fire, they gave us a choice: go to the local ADDY awards or take everyone to South Beach to stay at the Delano for three nights. Do I have to tell you what we chose and how long it took to decide?

By the way, where do you think the awards end up that don’t get shipped to our partners?

That’d be under the staircase.