This is my first October 31 here at Brains on Fire and I am definitely not disappointed. Take a walk with me through these costumes and you may very well be spooked:

RoboFrankenstein - Not only does Justin have the noggin-size to pull this off, he also has a better eye for makeup than most women.

She-Devil - We always suspected our intern Hayley was a little evil…

Princess Leah - Storm troopers beware of our traffic goddess Megan

Newscaster (suit top - no pants) - First Impression Steve shows us that his knees are even more impressive than his phone skills

Abby from NCIS - Even funnier if you knew our friendly, but normally conservative accountant Brandy. Work those pigtails!

Cheerleader - Spike. Does he not look shockingly good in this outfit? It belongs to a 14 year old girl and he is rocking it. Disturbing.

Fletch (from the Lakers dream sequence) - that’s me wearing a replica of the jersey that Chevy Chase wore in Fletch. I heart eBay.

And in front, Elvis has NOT left the building - Media Boss Jack Welch brought him back just for halloween.

(not pictured) A Major retail outlet - Curiosity officer Jen came dressed for Christmas, as was the Macy’s I stopped by last night.

Have fun everyone! We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled business blog posts tomorrow…

I traveled to Houston for the day last week with Robbin and Greg to sit down with some folks for a new business opportunity. We were there to talk about Brains on Fire, what we do, how we do it and what we could bring to the table.

The people there were phenomenal and connected with one another in a way that we rarely see. It was pretty amazing to dip our toe into their culture.

Two things really stuck in my head from our time together:

1) As he came into the room, one of the founders walked up to each of his executive staff… and hugged them. Without even saying a word. It was very, very powerful and left a strong impression. (And that comes from a hugging advocate.)

2) At one point, Greg mused (as he is prone to do) that ‘being clever is just a lack of knowledge.’ How true. Clever is a wall that creatives hide behind when they don’t feel comfortable with the real message. Clever is smoke and mirrors. But above all, clever is dangerous, because while clever can entertain at first, customers can see right through it.

I forgot to post last week’s Curiosity Team assignment, so this week, you get a two-for-one to kick you off into the Fall Back weekend.

Over the last two weeks, I have asked the Curiosity Team to send me words, images, ideas, memories, smells, songs, people - anything that comes to mind when they hear these words: PRECISION and NURTURING.

Feel free to join the conversation in the comments section! Or email me at curiosityteam@brainsonfire.com to join the team! But whatever you do… remember to set your clock back on Sunday.

Prost!

When I was a kid (I know, you all shudder with dread when I start my posts with that phrase), I was heavily involved with Odyssey of the Mind. In fact, that was where the 7 Wonders skit came from. My mom was the coach. And when she needed a little help kickstarting our creative thinking, she turned to a lot of different sources. One of them being a pair of books called A Whack on the Side of the Head and A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, both by Roger von Oech. He has written other books and created other projects since, but those are the two that really made a deep impression on me.

In recent weeks, Roger has become a good friend to the BOF blog, and he gave me a call the other day. It seems he has begun to dip his own toes in the blog waters as well. We chatted for a while and, in a gesture that he told me he hoped didn’t sound like shameless self-promotion, he offered to send me his latest thought starter. That being a Ball of Whacks. It’s this strange little ball, about the size of an apple made of 30 magnetic pieces. From there… the uses are yours to discover. It comes with a little book of starter suggestions, but the fun is really in manipulating the pieces to find your own shapes. He said the idea stemmed from a study on mental acuity he had read. Two groups of adults were given a mental acuity test, but before the test, one group spent time in a library, doing studious, library-type things, while the other group was given apples and paring knives. Guess which group scored higher?

Which got me thinking - A lot of the techniques that we employ in our insight phase involve getting people out of their concrete thought patterns and coming at (and discovering) their real opinions from a new angle. It’s the same idea. Some of the best thinking you do is when you distract yourself from thinking about what you think you’re supposed to be thinking about. (say that 5 times fast!)
We received our Ball of Whacks yesterday… and we can’t keep our hands off it. Thanks Roger!

Before my presentation evangelizing WOM at the National Restaurant Association’s Marketing Executive study group this morning, I had the pleasure of hearing Lee Cockerell, Former EVP of Operations for Walt Disney World, speak on the topic of creating magic. Being child-free and personally abhorring Disney World (yes, I know, I’m an awful person), I was skeptical about how much I was going to get out of his speech. It turned out to be the most valuable hour I’ve spent listening in a long time. Lee is a scholar of leadership. Here were a few takeaways:

It’s not the magic that makes it work, it’s the work that makes it magic. It takes thousands of people being extremely organized, managing time well, and keeping promises to set the stage for each guest to have the most fabulous vacation of their lives.

Guests do not come first, leadership does. Great Leadership -> Inspired Case Members -> Guest Satisfaction -> Business Results.
Appreciation, Recognition, and Encouragement are free, unlimited sources of fuel for your business. Use them to the fullest. Lee recognized cast members who had received letters of praise from the public with a personal note from him and a collectible pin. He found a restaurant server still carrying around that note of appreciation 10 years later. People have a very high ROI.

If people are your competitive advantage, it will be years before anyone can imitate you. If your competitive advantage is product, it can be copied tomorrow. Developing your employees as a competitive advantage takes time and consistency, but it is time well spent.
If you have a chance to see Lee lecture on leadership, I recommend that you make the time.
A hearty thanks to all of the folks with NRA’s MEG. They greeted me warmly, fed me like a queen and taught me their secret handshake (yes, you read that correctly) all in 24 hours. Consider me an advocate.