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September 2020

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In CREATIVITY

WHAT TIME IS IT?

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I hope that most of my (so far) 800(ish) daily stories.

Here on 50odd.

Are useful.

Or interesting.

Or both.

And assuming that they are.

Then this one may be an exception.

Because even though the theme of this little story is ‘time’.

It’s a waste of time, really.

It’s a little video that wastes about nine and a half minutes of your time.

But you know what?

That’s OK.

Because sometimes you can do something that doesn’t have to be for something.

So let’s do it.

What Time Is It?

OK.

So here’s the question.

If the hour hand and the minute hand on a standard clock face were identical.

In that they were both exactly the same length.

In that they looked the same in every way in fact.

Can you always tell the time?

Have a ponder.

In your mind, I mean.

Then take a look at this nine and a half minute video to find out: https://www.50odd.co.uk/what-time-is-it/.

If a clock has the same size hour and minute hands, can you always tell the time?

 

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In CREATIVITY

SNUFFBOX.

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Matt Berry is most famous for Toast of London.

It won a BAFTA in 2015.

And I like it!

However.

(And this will either bring us closer together.

Or it will drive a terrible wedge between us).

I really like Snuffbox as well.

A thing that Matt Berry did from 2006.

Snuffbox.

No single clip of Snuffbox will help you to understand what’s going on.

It’s too weird.

So here’s a YouTube search you can cut-and-paste:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=snuffbox+matt+berry.

And here’s where you can buy it on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Snuff-Box/dp/B001E2RG50.

And here’s the theme tune.

Catchy!

https://www.50odd.co.uk/snuffbox/.

 

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In BRAND STORYTELLING

THE END.

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Don’t ever feel bad about saying this.

I have not yet found my passion.

Or:

I’ve not yet found ‘my thing’.

Or:

I don’t think I’ve discovered what I was born to do.

In fact.

If you are thinking or saying anything like this

You should feel great!

Great.

You should feel great because it means you are pondering change.

You should feel great because it means you’re open to the idea that your passion, your ‘thing’ and what you were born to do – actually do exist.

That they are worth pursuing.

And there’s hope.

Because let’s face it.

There there’s a much sadder thing you could be saying on the subject of finding your passion.

Something that many people do end up saying.

And that you can probably avoid.

If you just keep on saying:

I have not yet found my passion.

Or:

I’ve not yet found ‘my thing’.

Or:

I am yet to discover what I feel I was born to do.

And that thing.

Is this:

I never found my passion.

Passion.

So keep looking.

Hard.

And this thought might help, too.

Because it helped me.

You don’t have to replacing the other thing or things that you do whilst you look.

You can explore your passion alongside the other things you’re doing right now.

You can hedge.

Start.

But do start somewhere.

Start here.

Because it’s worth recognising and remembering that saying:

I have not yet found my passion.

Signals the start of a chapter.

And.

Sadly.

That other thing you’ll end up saying if you do ever stop looking.

I never found my passion.

Signals the end.

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In BRAND STORYTELLING

THIS UPSIDE DOWN LIFE.

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It’s taken me a good while.

To finally do what all good brands should do.

It’s taken me a good while to capture exactly what the Always Wear Red brand is about.

In one, 15 second read.

New Chapter.

And as I move into a new chapter next week.

With a new website launching in a few days.

This is useful for me.

My 15 second read is called:

This Upside Down Life.

And here it is.

This Upside Down Life.

How strange it is.

This Upside-Down Life.

That so little of our time is spent with those who matter most.

Doing what matters most.

And that the seduction of work so very often prevents us from gifting ourselves the permission to pause.

Always Wear Red is for your downtime.

We are hand knits that hug you.

Self-care you wear.

And a reminder that in this short, 1000 month visit, ‘you time’ is not something to shoehorn into life.

‘You time’ is life.

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In BRAND STORYTELLING

CREATIVITY.

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I was chatting to a fellow business owner last week.

Steve, it was.

And we agreed on this:

The most creative businesses in the world.

Are the best businesses in the world.

We didn’t expand on it much.

We just said it.

Agreed.

And moved on.

Agencies.

I used to run agencies in my thirties and early forties.

Digital Agencies.

Brand Agencies.

Marketing Agencies.

And Creative Agencies.

Personally.

I didn’t spend much time ‘creating things’ for clients.

Not for the first ten years anyhow.

I spent the first ten years building superb digital, brand, marketing and creative teams.

But me personally?

It’s only been the last ten years or so that I’ve thought and worked creatively on the front line.

And I just wanted to point out that.

In my experience.

The most creative businesses in the world.

Businesses that live their own creativity.

Businesses that embrace my creativity.

Really are the best businesses in the world.

Creativity.

Creative businesses listen harder.

Think further.

Adventure more.

They ask:

Why not?

Much more than they ask:

Why?

And they are much better to work with (and for) than cautious, uncreative people.

How?

Anyhow.

The last point I want to make about creative businesses.

Is this.

There’s a really great question to ask about businesses that call them creative.

And that question is:

How?

You see, it’s not good enough to just say you’re creative.

It’s not enough to just say (something like):

We’re creative because we create things.

(That’s like saying we’re a restaurant because we sell food.

It’s thoughtless.

And it’s dull).

And it’s not good enough to do the odd apparently creative thing here or there either.

Truly creative businesses just ‘are’ creative.

In everything they do.

So as I say.

If you consider yourself to be a creative business.

Or you might even call yourself a Creative Agency.

There is a really important question to ask yourself with regards to you yourself as a creative force.

And that question is this:

How?

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In BRAND STORYTELLING

BRILLIANT BRANDS.

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Here’s a free e-book that is buzzing around at the moment.

It’s called Build Brilliant Brands.

It is, apparently, good advice from 22 of the world’s leading marketers.

Free.

Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s bad.

But it doesn’t mean it’s good either.

However, good people like Mark Ritson have contributed.

So it should be OK.

Here we go: https://www.50odd.co.uk/brilliant-brands/.

 

 

 

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In BRAND STORYTELLING

NOT.

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It is very important to know what you do in business.

What you are.

And what you are for.

And it is very important that it is clearly, precisely and consistently communicated.

Not.

It is however just as important to know what you are not.

And Always Wear Red is not a Fashion Brand.

Instagram.

I’ve just brought the Always Wear Red Instagram page back to life.

This week.

With Always Wear Red’s Brand Marketer, Rojin Yarahmadi.

You can follow Always Wear Red on Instagram, here: https://lnkd.in/eYJ5Ndn.

Fashion.

Our page won’t be like a fashion brand page in the purest sense.

Because I don’t want to be a fashion brand in the purest sense.

So I am afraid that I will fucking rattle on about sustainability and world kindness, gender neutrality (so you can share everything we ever make), zero waste (we’re made to order only), season-less design (classic lasts – fashion doesn’t) and a unique buy back facility so our zero waste policy extends way beyond the purchase (we’ll buy back, repair, refurbish, relabel, and resell any AWR hand knit – for ever).

There are no fish-gobbed, size 6, 18 year old models looking miserable in carparks either, I’m afraid.

And we’re far too slow and world kind / sustainability obsessed to be a ‘proper’ fashion brand anyway.

We’re definitely not cheap.

We’re bloody expensive, in fact.

But the value stays in because we can’t get anywhere near the 5x to 9x mark-up that big fashion brands work to.

So there we go.

Always Wear Red. World Class Clothing Brand. Shit Fashion Brand.

(Good slogan that… ‘might use it).

Business.

It is very important to know what you do in business.

What you are.

And what you are for.

And it is very important that it is clearly, precisely and consistently communicated.

Not.

It is however just as important to know what you are not.

And Always Wear Red is not a Fashion Brand.

Always Wear Red on Instagram: https://lnkd.in/eYJ5Ndn.

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