I have had numerous people ask me, what is your approach to your business…your creative approach. Well, I could talk or even lecture about my approach. It comes from years and years of experience, training, education, and teaching. So…here it is in two paragraphs.
Bobby Rettew, llc – Creative Approach to Storytelling
Storytelling has been and will always be the major focus of how we work with our clients. Every organization has a story to tell, so it is up to us practitioners to find and tell that story. We work with organizations to identify the audience, the purpose, and the delivery of each and every message. Then we create a plan that best identifies the message within the organization, and work with the organization to deliver that message.
We bring a documentary approach to production, looking within and allowing the individuals within the organization to become the voice of the message. We have the ability to write and craft a traditional-style message, but we find that if the organization and its members are a part of the message, then the audience connects with the organization. We use the storytelling approach to building relationships.
Teaching entrepreneurship is one of the biggest challenges I have under-taken in a while…but here I am teaching at the Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurship. Little ole me with my little business teaching tomorrow’s knowledge economy. Sometimes it is kind-of frightening, but more so enlightening.
The one thing I am rustling with internally…whether entrepreneurship is a learned concept or is it embedded in our “DNA”? I worked for a great entrepreneur a few years ago who hit it big during the telecom days. He used to tell me that entrepreneurship is exercising and unleashing your God given, natural talent. He did not try to explain how to take an idea, leverage your resources, and bringing that idea to market. No…he talked about having passion for an idea and bring it to fruition.
Entrepreneurship to me is more about language and culture. Was I born with the innate ability to become an entrepreneur? Or was it a series of life experiences and connections that led to that point in time when I worked for an entrepreneur, and he unlocked the urge to seek entrepreneurship. Did he teach me entrepreneurship or surround me with that language, showing the opportunities when seeking out my own marketable interests?
The culture or entrepreneurship for me is about passion. What is the one thing that you love to do, the thing that gets you up in the morning and makes you tick. What would be the one thing you would want to do if the world was going to end tomorrow. What is your life passion? For serial entrepreneurs, they have evolving interests. They have numerous passions, one that leads to the next. But it is more than just language and culture, it is identifying that desire to bring an idea to market and acting on those impulses…taking the leap.
Let’s just say I was amazed by the Verizon 4G LTE demonstration today at Verizon’s Corporate Office here in Greenville, SC. As I watching them describe and demonstrate the capability…I was thinking, man this is going to change the way we do business.
The 700 Mhz is where the LTE network will exist, the part of the spectrum that will penetrate walls and buildings further than any other part of the spectrum currently in use. Also, the speed of the 4G LTE network is just as fast as my home connection, if not faster than my Charter home network of 8 Mb/s download and 3 Mb/s. Yes…over a wireless connection! The demonstration test using Speedtest.net showed the speed of the 4G LTE card in the laptop was running 14 Mb/s download and 8 Mb/s upload speed…THAT IS FREAKING FAST! Fast enough to do full 720p video calls over the wireless, mobile network…with plenty left over for the video grid demonstration.
My iPhone4 phone with 3G probably is running at roughly 2 Mb/s download speed and 0.3 Mb/s upload speed. So, in the next few months, the Greenville/Spartanburg area will see this new network released with a whole new set of devices tapping into this speed. Many of the major metropolitan areas like Atlanta, Charlotte, LA, New York already have access. 38 markets and 60 airports currently have this network. So what does any of this have to do with healthcare?
First…more connectivity to the grid. Devices will be a part of everyday life in healthcare. From tablets in emergency departments to ambulances with streaming content/video back and forth, assessment of patient care during transport. This is just one of the areas healthcare will see this change. But here is another, hospital administrators will have a harder time restricting access to the Internet and social platforms.
Yes, many hospitals have been debating whether to “open up the pipes” to employees, allowing them access to Internet sites and social outlets. Two major concerns, bandwidth and employee performance. Well guess what…the hospital’s Internet and Social Media policy just became harder to write and enforce. LTE technology not only provides speed but also hospital building penetration with the 700 Mhz spot on the spectrum. Yes…it can get through more think walls.
These devices are going to become even more necessary, as a part of the connected network for making diagnoses. Also, who is going to provide these devices to healthcare professionals? Will the hospitals pay part of the bill, splitting it with the professional. Then which part of the content created on the device is owned by the hospital? Then, can the other part can be used for personal reasons?
But let’s put aside the concern over hospital employee productivity. How about the patients and patient families. They will have access to the these devices, speed, network, and the spectrum. Now, they can get online, post pics, maybe do some video over Skype. But with this upgrade to LTE technology…more pictures, videos, and information will be shared inside the walls of the hospital. How about patient privacy? How about the media outlet that dresses up in street clothes, walks into a hospital, and streams video content from inside the walls of the hospital. Now, these are extreme cases to consider…but access to the network and speed will no longer be an issue. And hospitals are not the only major organizations facing this change in accessibility and connectivity.
Yes…LTE technology is going to force us to rethink…A LOT! I know I am going to re-think my current AT&T plan, but it looks like they will be releasing their own LTE network. How about our home Internet providers? Especially given the comparable speeds. And many business will be rethinking their internal policies, what employees can do while at work and what devices they can use.
I was talking with a close colleague and friend tonight as we were working on a project, and we were trying to articulate the craft of visual storytelling. I was telling him that I have a friend here in Anderson, SC who is constantly introducing me to new people, and he uses my tag line, “This is my friend Bobby Rettew and he is a storyteller.” Then he follows-up with the phrase, “I am still trying to figure out how a storyteller makes money.” Well, Cordes Seabrook…this post is for you.
The craft of visual storytelling is tough to define…it is years and years of experience telling rich stories for broadcast television outlets across the country. It is years and years of judging and critiquing products for the National Academy of Television, Arts, and Sciences; Associated Press, National Press Photographers Association; and other local, regional, and national organizations. It is years and years of producing and leading teams of storytellers to produce shows, long format production, and numerous commercial spots for television and online distribution. But most of all…it is all about letting our stories tell themselves.
Telling compelling stories is not only understanding the mission of the project, but completely understanding the audiences you hope the message will compel to make action. It is understanding that the beginning, middle, and end is just the frame work for connecting the message to the audience; but weaving layers or messages tied together with a single red string.
The search for the red string is one of the hardest parts of the process…but once found, it makes the production to create the final product move increasingly faster. I was having dinner with Bob Dotson of NBC one night in Charlotte, and he explained to me that anyone can tell a story. But those who tell compelling, rich stories tell ones with layers and layers of messages…each connected with a single red string that crescendo at the right time, allowing the audience to full see the message through the subject(s) eyes and ears.
The approach I use aims to stay away from writing voice-over or track for someone to speak. Voice-over that connects all the sound-bites. The craft starts from the very beginning, with the interviews. The construction starts and continues during the shooting and interview process. This is the time to collect sound, great interviews. These interviews are collected in a way that tell the whole story from beginning to end. Each person interviewed has their own story to tell, adding to the the bigger picture of the final product. So it is the burden of the storyteller to guide each subject through an interview, so each person tells each piece of the puzzle. During this process, finding that one theme, idea, moral, ethic…the red string that connects all the pieces is crucial. Then while writing, we connect all the pieces using the red-string…to connect all the dots.
The red-string can be a person’s story, a subject each person reveals, an event that takes place…whatever is chosen, it has to make sense for the audience to grasp. Then using all the other elements, interviews, broll, natural sound, and music to fill in the gaps…guiding the audience through this visual timeline.
Visual storytelling is a craft…it is one that is hard to teach, articulate, and reproduce. This craft is also fraternal, you know when you meet another person that shares this same passion. We believe in the ethics of this moral enterprise, protecting the voice of the subjects that we so carefully provide as a platform to deliver a message. We are advocates for the people(s) voice…the voice of those who know the story the best. It is our ethic to properly represent that voice and bridge the gap between message, audience, and the subjects’ voice. If we are not careful, our writing sometimes de-humanizes the words they speak.
The business of this craft…to find those who believe in the craft and final value in advocating for the subjects voice. This visual storytelling enterprise closely represents that mission of word-of-mouth marketing, but we just provide a visual medium to communicate their message. We advocate for their message…because deep down inside, the audience wants to hear a story from those they relate. The audience relates to people that they can identify with, those whom they could see themselves replaced in the monitor or television screen. If that is achieved, and we can make the audience see themselves in the screen saying the powerful words…then we have achieved the goal of the craft. Visual storytelling is a craft…it is my passion.
These are two great books with great purposes! It is all about building communities of people that we share a common interest, and believing in ourselves!
So…I had a chance to look further into the Samsung Galaxy Tab and I think it is more than just the technology (hardware), it is about the OS and the applications. One of the first things I did was download the applications that I use regularly on my iPad…and see how they compared.
The applications I am most interested in my daily routine are Maps (navigation), Calendar, Mail, NYTimes, HuffingtonPost, Twitter, Facebook, iBooks, and the Weather Channel. If you watch in the video, I look at most of the applications listed and how I found the user interaction compared to the iPad.
Take a look and enjoy…just a few thoughts. Once again, I have a disclaimer…I own an iPad and love the Apple products. This tablet is great, but know I do have a bit of a bias. Also, Verizon and JDPR provided this Samsung Galaxy Tab for me to play with, so a big ole THANKS! They are not reimbursing me in any way for this post.
So I had a chance to hang out with a Samsung Galaxy Tab…thanks to my friends at JDPR and Verizon Wireless. No…they are not paying me for my words, but wanting to know my thoughts! So if you watch the video below…here are my first impressions.
As you know I am a big fan of the iPad and iPhone. I have both and found the Galaxy an interesting change from the beaten path. I am wondering if I would purchase one, but here are some honest thoughts based on my initial impression.
As you notice, to me it feels like a larger DroidX without the phone built in. It does have a microphone, so I am sure it can be “rooted” and converted into a phone device. But, bottomline I am wondering about the price point. I have checked online and it looks like the Tablet is $499.99 and is just a bit larger than the DroidX, which is $199.99 with a two year contract. Both run on the same Android OS offering the same mobile apps. I am wondering if people would be willing to make the $300.00 price jump for a little larger device that is not a phone? Now I know the same has been said about the iPhone and iPad, but there is a sizable difference in screen size.
Now…I realize I have some biases given that I am an Apple person. But here are some of the reason I like the Samsung Galaxy Tab:
1 – The size! Yes, I like the fact it rests in my palm. Bigger than a phone and smaller than the iPad. 2 – The Mobile 3G Hotspot! Nuff Said! 3 – It is a cool gadget. 4 – Opportunity to play with a different OS. 5 – Supports Flash Content via the browser. 6 – The front and back cameras.
Now…I did notice the browser was sketchy at times, lagging in load times with faced paced surfing. I also noticed that the Android Marketplace is still not full with as many apps as Apple’s App store, but time will change that. Also, waiting for Skype to support the cameras on the Galaxy.
Just a few initial thoughts. I will be having another post come with more impressions! Enjoy!
Here are a few reviews by some other folks that have a little more credibility than I do!
1 – Engadget’s Review – CLICK HERE
2 – Gizmodo Review – CLICK HERE
3 – ZDnet Review – CLICK HERE
4 – PCWorld Review – CLICK HERE
Storytelling is probably the oldest craft alive: the ability to tell stories so others can see a point-of-view and repeat for others to enjoy. Journalism is one facet of storytelling, being able to provide an objective: an un-biased point-of-view of “news” for others to consume.
I have been closely watching the incidents, like the rest of the free world, in Tucson, AZ that began with the shooting of many innocent American’s on January 8th. This story has been the epicenter of local, regional, and national topics from gun control, free-speech, political transparency, and even defining what it means to be American.
As Sarah and I were having lunch, she asked me…”Why do you think so much focus has been on Gabrielle Gifford’s story and not as much on those who have been wounded and died, including the little girl” Well, it is my belief that the story of Congresswoman Gifford is the true pinnacle of this whole incident. As stated by the surgeon’s, this is a case of miracles.
It was the first time Giffords had opened her eye since the shooting. Kelly told Giffords to give him a thumbs-up if she could hear him. Instead, she slowly raised her left arm.
“The doctor said this is amazing what she’s doing right now and beyond our greatest hopes,” Gillibrand said.
“It felt like we were watching a miracle,” Wasserman Schultz said. “The strength that you could see flowing out of her, it was like she was trying to will her eyes open.”
On ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Thursday, Gillibrand added, “Everything that we love about Gabby was all there at that moment.”
Kelly told the president and first lady about the development as they drove from the hospital to the University of Arizona’s McKale Center, where Obama would speak at a memorial service. Kelly gave the president permission to tell the crowd about his wife’s progress.
“Gabby opened her eyes,” Obama told the cheering crowd. “So I can tell you: She knows we are here, she knows we love her, and she knows that we are rooting for her through what is undoubtedly going to be a difficult journey.”
This miracle has broken down so many conventions and pre-dispositions, bridging gaps of communities and bringing together an American story right before our eyes.
Yet, there are so many stories that are untold, those left for us to understand. We are still trying to understand why a young man would use a gun to shoot so many a point blank range. In some of the pictures, he looks like just another person, another American, someone that could be buying groceries in the next aisle. We are trying to understand why, understand his fundamental Truth that made him make the decisions he made that day.
We are also trying to understand a small church in Topeka, Kansas and their motives for protesting during funeral services of those who perished during this event. Life Magazine did a photoessay of this group, and if you look at their faces and remove the picket signs…they look like you and I. Who are they and what are their truths? What provides them the voice to shout so loudly that it is necessary to bring another opposing view-point to this volatile discussion. I do not have the answers…but I have some thoughts.
Dr. Johnny McKinney of Boulevard Baptist Church has been guiding us through a discussion and examination of the Book of Genesis, a interesting text with many points-of-view. So literalist look at this text as the true faith based creation, and others look at it as a metaphor for how to live a good christian life. We all have a point-of-view. During the discussion, he told a story of the holocaust and the trial of the architect of the holocaust in the 1960’s.
Dr. McKinney tells us that during the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, as one of the holocaust survivors walked in to testify, that person collapsed upon seeing Eichmann for the first time. He did not collapse because he was so mad or overwhelmed with emotion from the events of the holocaust, or even what they had to go through in the concentration camps; but that Adolf Eichmann looked just like you and I. He looked “human.” This man thought the Jews were an evil group of people, and wanted to separate them from the rest of the human race.
So here is my question, why are we trying to protest the evil ones? Who are the evil ones? Did Jared Laughner see Gabrielle Gifford as evil? Does Westboro Baptist Church see those who they are protesting as evil? What is their poinit-of-view and what drives them to passionately advocate for their message. Or maybe they are driven by fear as well, not willing to take part in mutual discourse. Maybe their message is a one-way avenue to impose their truth. I am in search to understand and see their point-of-view, not to accept…but to understand. To take part in mutual discourse, open conversation, one of understanding.
As I was sitting and listening to Dr. McKinney speaking, I wrote the following. It was in response to this past week and the words of his talk this morning.
To understand ones truth does not mean you accept ones truth.
Examining and exploring another truth is a path to understanding, to see and hear another point of view.
Our truth is our reference point, our ethos. It is the foundation that makes cry, scream, laugh…our lens.
When we listen to other truths….it sometime takes out of our comfort zone both intellectually and emotionally.
When we begin to understand another truth, we put away our emotions and allow our logic step ahead and process anothers’ point-of-view.
We can dissect another’s truth and allow our emotions to express our acceptance or rejection.
We choose to not hear another point of view or truth because of fear of the unknown. Fear of what we are not certain how our logic will interpret and how our emotions can to take control.
Fear sometime drives the resistance to understand and listen to truth.
Our truth is powerful.
As storytellers, it is important to seek and understand the other point-of-view. It does not mean we must agree, but to seek and understand is the path to quality discourse that bridges gaps. As humans…quality discourse leads to healthy conversations.
Why do I write about something this political and personal on this blog, because our stories are stories of truths. We tell stories from many different points-of-view. They are full of messages and ideologies that shape the way audiences perceive a message and form the truths that shape their lives, and the lives they influence. We must be cognizant of our messages…and understand the opposing point-of-view and the people it will influence. Mutual discourse is a beautiful thing.
Do you have thoughts? I invite you to let me know! I am open for thoughts and discussion.
Welcome my friends! Welcome to your new name and your new place.
For most of my friends out there, over the last year I have been working with an organization called the Consortium for Enterprise Systems Management in Columbia, SC. You say who??? Yes, it is a long name for a big initiative.
A few years ago, Lonnie Emard of BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS) of South Carolina recognized the need to energize and empower the next wave of IT talent. He inspired Steve Wiggins the CIO of BCBS of South Carolina to perform a comprehensive study of the needs of the future IT Workforce not only internally, but across the industry. What they found was alarming and instrumental in today’s initiative now call IT-oLogy.
Did you know BCBS of South Carolina is more than just and insurance provider, they are data management/transaction group. Yes, in-order to allow insurance claims to happen…it takes servers exchanging lots of data. These servers require people to manage not only the hardware but the software that supports these transactions. Cobol is is the software that runs these servers and it takes people that know this software to support the servers and the infrastructure to facilitate these transactions. BCBS of South Carolina began realizing that the people who are managing this infrastructure were retiring and not many people to replace them. Many of the universities and higher education institutions were not teaching Cobol and the server knowledge to run the systems at BCBS. Houston…we have a problem.
So…with this problem, Lonnie Emard had the vision to bring together a “Consortium” of partners to find a solution. The solution: begin educating and empowering students in K-12 about the value of IT as a career path. Currently, to tell people the world is like telling kids it is ok to be a “geek.” IT is in everything we do, from turning on a light switch to connecting to a Wifi hotspot. It is everything we do. We have become a connected society and surrounded in world of IT….Information Technology.
So….why and I telling you this? This initiative came to fruition over a year ago with a legal name “Consortium for Enterprise Systems Management”. Well…they have re-branded their name to IT-oLogy. Yes…at little more edgy and appropriate given the audiences….young students and young professionals. Congratulations IT-oLogy…you have come so far. You have a new name and a new building. Lonnie Emard, the Executive Director of IT-oLogy, does not look at as a new building but more of a hub, a community, a place to join forces. The University of South Carolina will be teaching classes in this new facility, there will be an Open-Source Lab, a 200 person auditorium, tons of meeting space…all right across the street from the State House in Columbia, SC.
I have been really thinking why we as marketers been so focused on a discussion of Social Media(s) return. In 2010, the Social Space experienced an un-precentented number of professionals fighting for the same space…the space for marketing dollars and jobs. That is why we heard so much conversation on placing a numerical value on the media that captures social exchange. The two reasons for the term Social Media ROI…the economy and job lose.
When the economy declined dramatically late 2008 and in 2009, we felt the ripple effects in the world of business in 2010. Especially in the business of banking, real estate, academics, and even healthcare. People were loosing jobs and marketing budgets slashed. Advertising and PR Companies including departments were laying off and closing doors. Many more “entrepreneurs” were forcibly born looking for ways to connect in new ways.
As outlets like Twitter and Facebook gained lots of traction…and professional outlets like LinkedIn carried those resumes; relationships began to become key in finding work. As we built more and more online communities, marketers realized that there was a space to find communities to share brand conversations.
Why bring this up and re-kindle the unwanted conversation around the great American depression that effected so many individuals. Because, I was a part of this movement. As I watched a business I help build crumble, I was seeking to find new business opportunities and new relationships. But what I found was more than the ability to speak credibly about a digital, social space…I found relationships with people. Most of these people I have yet to meet, but these people are ones that I share conversations with daily…online
So why must we measure this space. Why must we measure the conversations that were fostered during a time of new connections. Yes…we can count the “Likes” and the “Followers”. We can look at the clicks to the blogs. We can aggregate the impressions created for brand recognition. But it is really my honest opinion, from a corporate marketing perspective, this space leads to credibility and connections between kindred souls.
I was meeting with a Land Investment Group talking about how they could use the Social Space to benefit their business and their initiatives when raising capital. The social space I believe will not 100% guarantee a deal for someone to invest. But what I do think is that it will help the conversation. Any business deal is about relationships…especially when it comes to investing money. But after the meetings and the “pitch” is done, those individuals interested do what we all do…they do some due-diligence. They go home, open the laptop and do a little searching and investigating. What the social space provides is the SEO to guide the person searching back to content the group has created. They start Google”ing”. This space provides conversations that have taken place around that brand. It provides the reinforcement to a potential decision.
I am not saying that having a “social strategy” is for the birds…what I am saying there is more than just spending time trying to measure conversations wrapped around relationships. The space is getting more and more flooded with these conversations, these blog posts, these “thought leaders”, all fighting for the same space. The velocity of conversations online is ever increasing and just as fast as the technologies that are connecting these conversations.
What this velocity has provided…more and more access to real time information and content. On the day when Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in Tucson, AZ…real time streams of information from common folks were competing with “credible” news sources. Most of all the outlets were reporting that she had past away, while “social” outlets provided platforms of people surrounding the scene to share information. Imagine the burden on news outlets competing for space with fact hungry, online socialites. We have all become news journalists trying to find and share information. We are all competing for that space…we want to be heard.
Now…there are billions of listeners. It all comes back to connecting with like minded individuals.
**Picture is from Hunting Island in 2006 right before the erosion destroyed our beach house.
As I am sitting here looking at the 7 inches of snow outside, I am scanning Tweets in my Social Media Favorites List. I noticed one from Mack Collier @MackCollier.
So I clicked the link and I have to agree with Mack…this is a smart lady! Here is the response from Margie Clayman (@margeclayman).
Margie, you have got me thinking about this crazy world in this social space. You said: “There are a lot of people who are out there solely to rake in the big bucks and get famous, and it kind of makes me mad that their methodologies work. I try to do things the slow, more engaging/interactive way, which I find extremely rewarding, but it’s not the kind of work that gets you accolades in the industry.”
This quote really struck home for me and made me think a little more. It is people like you who are out there helping people build quality initiatives, and if your motives are in the right place and the initiative works…you should not be in the fore-front. You are helping people understand the social space and build communities with your guidance. If you were in the middle of the initiative, then you would be the whole campaign and it would be just that…a campaign.
Helping organizations build quality social initiatives is about teaching and guiding. It is not about doing it all for them, thus you completely speak on their behalf in the social space. Community building is about helping people connect around an organizations’ initiatives, not around out own personal agenda’s. We help organizations we believe in…and we have relationships with these groups – they are important to us. It is our ethics that drive us to make sure their interests are always put first. This is just my humble little opinion and thanks for making me think on this snowy day in South Carolina! Thanks Mack for sharing this via a Tweet…it got me thinking.
I have a good friend that is a Chief Meteorologist in North Carolina at a station I used to work, WCNC-TV in Charlotte. It is the NBC Affiliate and we worked together for close to 3 years. While I was there, he was the weekend weather guy and since I left, he was promoted to Chief Meteorologist.
Why am I telling you about my friend Brad Panovich, well…he is a weather nerd! He has a passion for weather and understanding how weather effects our daily lives. He also has a passion for the science of weather study. I would imagine Brad probably would fit well with the many of the weather and storm chasers in the midwest. You know those people that chase tornados. He would not chase them just to document their relative activity for the thrill. He would chase a tornado to document the pattern to understand the science.
His passion is shown in his use of technology…he uses it to tell his story and the story of the weather that interests him daily. If you are local to Charlotte, NC…you can watch his “stories” on WCNC-TV. You can also check him out on WCNC.com. But, if you go to his house…he has more computers in his office than I do. He uses them to track weather patterns and share his findings. He uses the power of the web and the social space to keep people informed. He has realized that there is a group of people that wants to understand weather, but do not live in the Charlotte DMA. The television signal does not reach the people he feels like can be informed by his understanding of weather knowledge.
He uses a blog, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook to share his knowledge and findings for others to watch and understand. I do not watch local weather and meteorologist here in the Upstate of South Carolina, I follow those whom I have a relationship. So when Brad started reporting the weather via his blog, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
Just today, most of the Southeast is complete holding pattern waiting to see if this latest winter weather storm is actually going to materialize. Most of us South Carolinians are sometimes skeptical of the prospect of winter weather. It is often reported to expect snow, everyone goes and cleans out local grocery stores of bread and milk, then nothing happens. We have this thing called the Blue Ridge Mountains…sometimes it gets in the way.
So what do I do while I am waiting to see if the white stuff blesses us with its presence, I pull out my iPad to look at the radar on the Weather Channel App, and see what Brad is posting on Twitter, Facebook, and his blog. I do not turn on the local channels here…they seem like talking heads. Brad, I know him! I know his passion. I have sat through hurricanes with him, chased tornados with him, stood in freezing rain with him…this guy knows his stuff.
The social space is a natural fit for him. Television limits his reach. He doesn’t just work his weather reporting shift at WCNC-TV, five days a week. He is sitting at home, in front of his massive computers, tracking. He is studying the weather system. He is using his blog as his weather notebook, jotting notes for us to see what is happening. He is recording the computer screen as a video, showing us what he is finding. He posts it to his blog, Tweets and updates his Facebook with the link. People like me ask questions via Tweets and Facebook, and he answers. He has created a touch point to audiences beyond the reach of WCNC-TV’s digital transmitter. The social space is his natural place to blog, chat, update, and engage with people concerning what he is most passionate about…weather.
Why am I telling you about? Because he is telling his story everyday with the use of technology. How neat would it be for people like Brad to sit on a panel, and talk about how they use new media and the social space to tell their story. We marketers could learn so much.
You want to follow Brad and his passion, check him out here at the following places:
I am always amazed with the stories when I start working on a new project. There are so many stories all over. I am not sure if you have taken the time to visit Duke University’s campus, but it is absolutely beautiful. But in the heart of the campus is the chapel. “A magnificent Gothic sanctuary with a landmark tower located at the most prominent point on an impressive university campus.” It reminded me of touring Europe and some of the beautiful chapels in Rome and France. But what makes this trip so special is the story of Clergy Health.
The Duke Endowment states, “Studies indicate that clergy are among the nation’s most overworked people, and that the long hours and constant stress of the job weigh on their health and lead to many pastors failing to take care of themselves. Another factor: The average age of clergy is rising, which brings with it more health issues.”
We met with Robin Swift who is with the Duke Divinity’s School Clergy Health Initiative, and she talked on camera about the overall importance of this initiative and the broadening effects.
Bottomline, “The Duke Endowment has awarded $12 million for the creation of a Clergy Health Initiative administered by Duke Divinity School and focusing on helping United Methodist ministers in North Carolina tend to their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.” That is a huge investment for the Duke Endowment, not only in financial resources, but in the foresight to see and understand the need for health initiatives to better serve future congregations and their clergy.
New York Times wrote an article in August, 2010 talking about this very issue of Clergy Health, specifically in the New York Region. “Members of the clergy now suffer from obesity, hypertension and depression at rates higher than most Americans. In the last decade, their use of antidepressants has risen, while their life expectancy has fallen. Many would change jobs if they could.”
Robin Swift said during our conversation that it is a challenge for ministers given their “job description.” Many travel, go into congregations’ homes, sometimes offered un-healthy dinner options, and little time to exercise. Also, the United Methodist Church require clergy to constantly move, changing churches between every 7 years and sometimes every 2 years. As they serve their flock, it is harder and harder to pay attention to their own health, because they are trained to put their congregations first.
The Duke Divinity School is researching this issue and working with Clergy to find better ways to create a healthy lifestyle. The one thing that really stood out to me, this initiative is not just telling Clergy what they think they need to do; they are spending more time asking how they can help. Listening is a major part of this initiative, searching for ways to help each Clergy and meet the needs where they exist.
Over the next month or so, I will be working with the Duke Endowment to tell the stories of the Clergy Health Initiative and how it is helping create change in the lives of the Clergy in North Carolina.
These are the type of impactful stories I like to tell, stories that are creating change in lives of people around us!
To learn more about the Clergy Health Initiative, here are some links below:
Duke Divinity’s School Clergy Health Initiative Blog – CLICK HERE
The Duke Endowment’s Commitment to Clergy Health – CLICK HERE NY Times Article: Taking a break from the Lord’s Work – CLICK HERE
It all began with the legacy of my grandmother…she is my creative, genetic inspiration.
When I started working for myself, I was in search of stories. I was in search of stories that I could capture with my cameras, with my ears, and my heart. I wanted to tell rich stories, those that touched a certain group of people to create some sense of change.
I have always been influenced by stories and not sure where this all began…but I do know a few things. I grew up as a creative soul inside the body of person who was “supposed to be an engineer.” I was always told that I had my grandmothers creative gift, one that was only transfered to a few kind souls…my aunt Vicki and my cousin Lisa.
My grandmother’s name was Addie Belle Wilson Rettew and she passed away when I was eight months old. She was my father’s mom and lost her battle to colin cancer, passing a legacy of creative spirit through her passion of painting. My grandfather built her a beach house with his bare hands on the coast of South Carolina in Hunting Island State Park. She taught painting and art at North Greenville College and Furman University. For some strange reason, I still remember her holding me.
I gained my creative voice through years and years of art lessons. I took private art lessons after school all the way through high-school. I had athletic skills playing JV Basketball and running Cross-Country, yet I loved drawing and painting. I found my true calling, my medium in the 6th Grade when I was selected to go to a summer program for gifted students called Governor’s School. I spent all summer learning the basics of photography …then my voice was sparked. I built my first pin-hole camera and from there on I was a shutter bug. Everywhere I went, I was taking pictures.
I remember my first camera was a Canon T90 and it was beautiful. My dad bought it for me in junior high school but would not let me touch it until I read the instruction book. Not the operation manual, but the book that talked about the medium. A photojournalist was born.
Capturing images became my life’s mission..capturing stories became my life’s calling. There are two things that I love to capture…they are faces and and sounds that sourroung. I found this when I learned how to use a video camera. I did not not learn the video medium with a home video camera. My grandfather was the only one that had one and I was not allowed to touch it. I learned with a broadcast betacam at Clemson University. Since I was the school photographer at Daniel High School, I was chose by Clemson Athletics to work in Video Services on scholarship to capture football practices for the coaches. Game film is what makes college football such a competitive sport…the art of understanding and grading the movement of players.
Clemson Football Coach Danny Ford was the coach that had the vision to purchase the best video equipment, to not only grade his team but to grade his opponent. I remember hearing that the cameras were worth $40,000 and it was a privilege to be one of the three people to shoot video with one of those three cameras. I learned the craft, the technical skill of operating these cameras. What I found was my next medium…using this medium to capture motion and sound.
This technical skill gave visual life to my brain…my heart. The ability to capture moments in time that inspired change. Having a visual communication tool to not only record the image but the sound, rebroadcast for others to view…and create a sense of passion filled momentum to see life through a different “lens.”
Capturing stories is more than just having a camera and pointing it in the right direction to acquire an image. It takes heart, soul, and ears. It takes the understanding of the context and the understanding of the audience. We can have the best technical skills, but we have to understand the language to translate this medium for a community of people to comprehend…to invoke change.
I think back to my years as an engineering student…I remember Newton’s Third Law of Motion with the basic premise that for every action…there is a equal and opposite reaction. This is commonly know as Law of Conservation of Energy. So thinking of this in human terms, for every human action…there will be a equal and opposite reaction.
If we look at this through the view-point of Dissoi Logoi, we will also learn to understand that there are two sides to any “argument.” This is commonly taught in rhetoric classes along with the legal profession. From a communication view-point, we must see another’s point-of-view.
I began comparing this two very important texts after graduate school. This is where I found my voice. I studied mathematical sciences in undergraduate and communications in graduate school. This brought all my technical skill to one critical path, turned the technical skill into more of a practitioner based skill…no longer seeing the camera as tool but merely a way to capture and interpret reality for those to consume and enjoy.
It is my belief that we will see more mini-documentaries this year than in years past. Why, because the “Social Space” has provided a bigger platform to distribute content and a focus on the community voice is ever so prevalent.
In 2010, AT&T launched a campaign to educate consumers about the dangers of texting while driving. This video was shot as a short documentary, capturing the stories of those most effected by this social concern. What better way to bring the consumer to a place to see right into the heart of the issue than a documentary style video.
With YouTube being one of the Top Three search engines along with the platform to deliver high quality content, this video has been viewed over 570K times. That is an amazing touch point to so many consumers of information, people are embedding this video in Facebook, their blogs, and numerous other places.
Documentary style storytelling is a way to provide a journalistic approach to content delivery, providing a view-point directly from those whom are most effected by the mission of the video. Many traditional ad firms shy away from this approach, becuase it is harder to control the message…supposedly. You can’t script responses, you can’t shot-sheet and storyboard real life action and reaction. The ethical approach to telling this type of story has a whole new approach. Most documentary style storytellers shy away from script writing, not using “voice over” to connect the micro messages of the soundbites. Most try to take a more extreme position allowing the people in the documentary to completely tell the story. The only way to guide the message is do a good job of asking the appropriate questions to find the best responses, weaving them together to tell the story.
Look at ESPN’s 30 for 30 Series. It has empowered 30 storytellers to bring a passion to the screen by telling 30 stories. As stated by ESPN, “An unprecedented documentary series featuring thirty films from some of today’s finest storytellers. Each filmmaker will bring their passion and personal point of view to their film detailing the issues, trends, athletes, teams, rivalries, games and events that transformed the sports landscape from 1979 to 2009.”
This series can be seen on ESPN, but also online not only at the 30 for 30 website. Consumers can share the videos by links and embed codes, empowering consumers to take part in the storytelling process. A community of messages sharing by a community of consumer advocates. But what is even greater, each one is produced by a different documentary storyteller with complete creative enterprise…empowering the documentary approach to the collective story. Each one has a different style, a different approach, a different story…communities telling rich stories.
Think back to 2002 when Michael Moore released Bowling for Columbine attacking one issue that is near and dear to the hearts of Americans…guns. This documentary not only inspired many Americans to think about the horrible tragedy of Columbine but attribute a national conversation wrapped around the influence of gun laws in the American fabric. But the other thing this documentary inspired, that anyone with a camera, a vision, and a passion to tell a story can achieve the national spotlight with a powerful message.
By the way, Bowling for Columbine won the 55th Anniversary Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 and an Oscar at the Academy Awards for Best Documentary in 2003. Talk about taking a message to a national spot light. It not only influenced millions of viewers/consumers but also the critics at large. You can see all the other awards that Bowling for Columbine won here on IMDb’s website.
So why will 2011 be a year of documentaries, well more and more cameras and technology have become affordable, compound that with the distribution platofrms like YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, blogs, Twitter, and the list goes on. The critical point of content creation and content delivery is coming to it’s true apex providing the means and opportunity to touch more hearts and minds than CBS’s 60 Minutes. BTW, that is one of my all time favorite storytelling, magazine shows still in existence!
We are seeing more and more content created with the iPhone4, Flip Cameras, Canon EOS Cameras…quality content that is being integrated into bigger productions. If you look at the video below, this was shot with a Canon EOS 7D DSLR…yes, a camera for photos!
But what makes this even more a reason why we will see more documentaries this coming year, we as a community of advocates have truely found and understood the social space. This social space has began to break down traditional means to tell stories, providing more community voices to tell big brand messages. This is the heart of the documentary approach, many voices in one story told conhesively for the consumers at large to watch and derive, project, and discuss their own point of view.
This past October my mother was married in the Charleston Harbor in Charleston, SC. The following pictures were a select few that I took some time to touch-up then enlarge to give to my mom for Christmas this year.
If you look above, this is majority of the wedding party and family with my mom, she is the one in the white dress, slightly off-centered to the right. Steve is the hugging her just to the left. My sister Jennifer is is the one in the blue dress to the left. I took this picture at the last second, and luckily had my 11 mm wide angle lens on the camera. We are on a old-timey cruise boat with this main area that had us packed in like sardines. I took this picture and had it enlarged. I did not do much to it other than removing some dust particles that appeared in the image from the lens and also giving it a hint of a vignette. I think this image captures the moment of happiness right after mom and Steve cut the cake.
Here is the boat we set sail on named Innisfail, it was built in the 1930’s. Click Here to learn more about the boat. The picture above I took of the yacht right before departing for the ceremony in the Charleston Harbor. Steve loved this boat and thought it looked vintage…so I thought I would give it more of a vintage look with the black and white effect. We were only allowed to bring 65 people on the boat, that is including wedding party, family, and guests. Needless to say that if you did not RSVP, you did not get on the boat, unless someone dropped out at the last second. One of my cousins was not able to take the cruise, he forgot to send in his RSVP card. Big dummy!
This final image is my favorite. I had it enlarged and put on canvas with the wooden backing. We cruised under the new Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, the bridge that replaced the two older Cooper River Bridges. This is my favorite image of the bunch, with a slight sepia effect (outside of converting to black and white). As we were going under the bridge, I ran to the front deck and and held the shutter button down. I had just putting my 11 mm lens on the camera and some dust was trapped inside on the back of the lens. It actually produced a very cool grainy effect on the image giving it a vintage look. Mom loved this when she opened it, and now it is hanging in their living room.
If you want to see all the images from the big ole wedding day and the cruise on the harbor, CLICK HERE for the Facebook Page.
