Strands of Genius: Content isn't King, Do You Know SheIn, GroupThinkFest, Hovis Ghostsigns
Strands of Genius: Content isn't King, Do You Know SheIn, GroupThinkFest, Hovis Ghostsigns
plus our thoughts on: birthdays
WRITING FROM | Nashville, TN
WORKING ON | Filed an article, working out taxes, Rosie got her driver’s license renewed, travel planning begins for the summer and fall, chasing signatures, checks and testimonials.
LOOKING AHEAD
May 10 - June 4: Nashville, TN
June 4-9: Beersheba Springs, TN
June 9-30: TBD: Northeast…
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
The weather has been very pleasant hereabouts, making for good walking and sitting and not wearing of jackets. Sorry if it has been less pleasant where you are. It will be nice again soon no doubt, why not curl up with a good smartphone and a fireplace screensaver in the meantime? Maybe put some comforting socks on, that always feels good. Have you eaten today? Make sure you drink some water. It’s Faris’ birthday on 23rd and Rosie’s on the 30th of May. May babies are awesome and we seem to know a lot of them. Happy month of birthdays all! This particular temporal arrangement is usually very handy for Faris since he gets a one week reminder in advance of his wife’s birthday every year. However, this year sneaky Rosie has started his birthday celebrations earlier still with clues and puzzles!
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Madison&Paulie, Paulie’s parents Vera&Tony, & their friends for our first #vaxlife proper social dinner party! + curled Italian sausage, the May Birthday Bonanza, Judy, getting a lift when our late night Lyft cancelled on us (THANKS PAULIE!), cheeseburger pizza (it’s good), wrapping a few client workshops, projects and birthday presents last week, pedicures, catdaddy pants, wristbands in various colors, wrapping paper, Marvel Splendor, Northbooks notebooks (the bessssst!), and our parents, who brought us into the world and did all the heavy lifting for the first 18 years.
S C H O O L O F S T O L E N G E N I U S >> H I G H L I G H T S
//SOSG x Joseph Kilran | Community Meet Up//
Starts (Weds) May 19, 2021 at 12:00 PM EDT
Establishing your style: 99% perspiration 1% inspiration
Are you ready to discover the creative power of processes and protocols? Developing a style takes years and dedication. But once you’re branded to your style, you feel as if you’ve deciphered the Da Vinci Code. Drawing became a relevant part of my life once I realized I could use it as a means of escape. It’s yours to call your own. Getting there is not easy, but processes and protocols help you define and establish your unique style.
About Joseph Kilran: He’s a self described “nerdy creative” with 15+ years of experience leading projects, managing critical work streams, and actively engaging business, technology, and creative stakeholders.
//SOSG May Yoga | Community Meetup//
Starts (Thurs) May 20, 2021 at 12:00 PM EDT
We hope you'll join us for our fourth community yoga session! Our instructor will be Elea Soler, and she'll be leading us in a practice designed for all levels -- meaning you're most welcome whether you're new to yoga, or have years of experience.
Enroll at http://schoolofstolengeni.us
Practicing Strategy in a Changing World.
Yes, sure, a lot of the fundamental strategy skills will be as important as ever. If not more! But how do you practice your strategy craft in a changing world? That's the topic for this year's Group Think Festival. Join them, and some top practitioners in the field, on June 3rd, 8am–8pm BST.
Our friends at GroupThink are doing a festival with some fantastic speakers!
We have a free ticket to give away and it’s for one of you dear readers - but first you’ll have to share your favorite workshop exercise. We’ll pick a winner randomly from all the submissions we receive. You have one week to submit your answers. We’ll draw Weds May 26th and notify the winner via email.
:: THE LINKS ::
CONTENT IS NOT KING
Very recently Verizon sold Yahoo and AOL to Apollo Private Equity. Then AT&T announced there were spinning off WarnerMedia into a merger with Discovery. Lots of things about that are funny if you have been online for the last couple of decades. The sale and subsequent integration strategy of AOL was masterminded by former CEO and Xoogler Tim Armstrong. He was Faris’ client in NYC and whiteboarded his strategy with some concentric circles representing the ‘internet stack’ of pipes and computers and browsers oh my, highlighting that the next great opportunity layer was content. So “content is king?” Faris asked, facetiously. YES, was the hilarious reply. If only Tim had read this by the head of MATHS at AT&T Labs, published in 2001, explaining why it’s not and never was. (First Monday)
DO YOU KNOW SHEIN?
Do you know SheIn? If you are a middle aged man then almost certainly no (until now. You’re welcome). If you are a women, then probably yes! The ultra fast REAL TIME fashion e-commerce DTC fashion platform site is huge and growing. Apparently it’s C2M (consumer to manufacturer) because the app browsing and purchase data is used to dynamically optimize inventory along the supply chain. Extensive analysis and history of the TikTok of e-commerce to get you up to speed. (Not Boring)
HOVIS GHOSTSIGNS
Ghostsigns are old outdoor advertisements that were painted on buildings and then covered because people are lazy and then uncovered and occasionally treasured because sometimes we regret/are grateful for the laziness. Sam Roberts, formerly of the IPA, is Mr Ghostsigns and is finally doing a book. Like the dot over the O in Hovis? Well, “the 'tilde' signifies the shortening of the latin 'hominis vis' (strength of man) from which the Hovis name comes. This titbit is from a chapter on Hovis in 'Ghost Signs: A London Story'“. Support it on (Kickstarter)
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:: WHAT WE’RE THINKING ABOUT: BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS ::
Are you the type of person that likes celebrating your birthday? Or do you prefer to gloss over it? We’re the type of people who look for any excuse to celebrate, well, anything, and so we jump on the birthday bandwagon. And after a year of being trapped away from our friends, and celebrating our vaccination station, it’s exciting to start planning some celebrations again.
The earliest mention of birthdays in historical documents is from 3,000 BCE in reference to a Pharaoh’s birthday. However, looking at the document in larger context, the ‘birthday’ seems to be representing the day that the Pharaoh was transformed into a God, which was more important than their physical birth.
The Greeks are who we have to thank for the candle tradition. As a part of Greek culture, they offered many sacrifices or tributes to appease their gods, including moon-shaped cakes with lit candles to celebrate the lunar goddess, Artemis.
Over time, these candles were used to ward off evil spirits, and offer protection to the person celebrating his or her birth day. (They believed these moments of change could open the individual up to evils.) Still, the Greeks and the Egyptians only celebrated birthdays of the Gods living among them. It was the Romans who we can thank for the broad celebration of birthdays. While the Roman government would create public holidays in honor of its citizens, regular Romans would celebrate birthdays of friends and family members as well. Though when we say “regular Romans” we should point out that at this point these celebrations were reserved for men. (Female birthdays weren’t celebrated until the 12th century.)
All RoMEN (again, no lady celebrations yet) turning 50 years old would receive a cake baked with wheat flour, olive oil, grated cheese, and honey. However, it was the Germans that we have to thank for our birthday cake tradition. In the late 18th century, they had Kinderfestes which where children’s birthday parties that featured a cake with as many candles as they were years old — plus an extra one for luck and the year ahead.
In 1924, Robert Coleman took the classic “Good Morning To You” a song to be sung by the children at school (1893), and remixed it with some birthday lyrics, which quickly overshadowed the original tune. The new song was called “The Birthday Song.”
All culture builds on that which came before! The song was owned and vigorously protected by Warner/Chappel until 2016 but is now finally in the public domain.
PS: Apparently the most common birthday in the USA is October 5th. (Considering New Year’s Eve is a pretty common conception date, this makes sense.
BUT, did you know that May 22nd - only a day before Faris’ birthday - is the *least* common birthday in the USA?! (TBH, this seems like something that might not be true, but according to Pump It Up Party, it is… so we’re going with it. Ha!)
:: AND NOW… US CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION ::
Is a real thing and this is from its official government communication account this morning. It’s been up to these shenanigans for a while.
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
rockON,
faris & rosie & ashley | your friends over at geniussteals.co
@faris is always tweeting
@rosieyakob hangs out on instagram
@ashley also writes for deaf, tattooed & employed
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)