Strands of Genius: Practical Power, Full Stack Strat, Brand as Onboading
Plus: Rip Van Winkle in UV with a twist in his tale
WRITING FROM | Chattanooga, TN
WORKING ON | positioning, proposals, and party planning <3
LOOKING AHEAD
April 8 - April 11 | Chattanooga, TN
April 11 - 15 | Nashville, TN
April 15 - 19 | Chattanooga, TN
April 19 - 26 | Beersheba Springs, TN
April 26 - 30 | Miami, FL
April 30 - May 18 | Worcester Park, UK
May 18 - 20 | Nashville, TN
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
Hello darlings, how’s Spring feeling? Last week we had a strategy sprint and then friends visiting from the UK, so we took them (and their son, especially) to see Shrek The Musical and Rocky City (see below). Fun times, followed by a weekend of recovery running and gardening. The weather is mostly warm, the sun is shining somewhat meekly through the morning clouds, and you are glorious and doing the best you can.
Faris continues to ingratiate himself to the local community by running around looking like he does and being barked at by dogs, whilst Rosie has been meeting all our new neighbors and proffering cookies.
Running in most parts of the USA is structurally disincentivized to a ridiculous degree. There is no such thing as a sidewalk (pavement) in most of it. Thus road running consists of navigating stretches of land between the ‘car road’ and private property (with dogs).
This doesn’t seem especially fair for people who enjoy using public roads on their feet. In fact, it is outright dangerous, and you have to be constantly alert, which detracts somewhat from the flow state one might be aspiring to.
The law apparently states:
Not using a sidewalk when there is one could result in a civil infraction, she said. View the law here. This is a state code, laws are complex here, but the point I feel stands that people are the ones who are more likely to be penalized.
The Sgt went on to point out that:
“Pedestrians and bicyclists need to understand that the primary purpose of a road (and what most roads are designed for) is for vehicular travel,” said Bennett. “They need to be extra defensive because they are no match for the size and speed of a vehicle.
There are many areas that are developed and designed for pedestrians and bicyclists.”
??????????
It is absolutely amazing what the power of a handful of at one time incredibly wealthy and politically connected car companies across decades of the development of the USA has led to, the belief that roads themselves, public access routes between private property, are not really for people.
Anyway.
Where there are small patches of common ground to the side of these roads, they are invariably filled with trash, thrown from passing cards presumably, since no one walks. I mean no one because even the police believe roads are for cars. Cars will pull over to see if you are OK because you are walking, which confuses them, because why would anyone want to walk?
Concerningly, 80% or so of the trash are alcohol containers, making the aforementioned perceived running danger even more cognitively present when one sees it.
So.
Faris has taken a leaf out of David Sedaris’ book (before he got too mean, recently, it was fun to read him being mean about other people) and has started picking up roadside garbage with gloves and heavy duty bags in a deeply passive aggressive way to build community. Stay tuned for updates!
Drink some water maybe, try not to hurt yourself too much and be kind to yourself when you do.
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Ronan, Antonia & LEO! Ashleigh&Matt, 1886, Dead or No Deal Island (which is a Deal or No Deal Survivor mash up that slaps), regional theatre, Rock City, & YOU.
:: THE LINKS ::
PRACTICAL WAYS TO GET MORE POWER
This sort of title will usually trigger an “ignore” signal in my brain because of a sort of Platonic (a Plato reference, rather than that typical ‘platonic’ descriptor you’re used to) relationship with power - namely, that those who seek it should not get it. Faris was talking to a friend the other day and she mentioned that the state of politics was in a roundabout way “our fault”. She specifically meant that people from Faris’ alma mater tend to end up as Prime (and most other) Minister(s) of the UK most of the time, and the people who were involved in politics at university were simply the worst people anyone knew. The whole moral morass just seemed so toxic, already, it made the more, let’s say sensitive, among us unwilling to get involved. And perhaps we all need to get involved more, but it feels so horribly corrupted at this point. The general principle I fear now applies very broadly. Anyway, I enjoy and learn from and think a lot on Troy’s newsletter and his podcast and I read this with interest: “Start working on it now. If you are in media or advertising, which many of you are, life changes are nearer than you may have hoped or expected. In fact, they are staring at you right now: you the young and dispensable, you the middle and rationalizable, you the old and expensive.
I’ve seen too many people who have spent a life working hard only to find their choices dramatically limited because they have not been strategic about growing their personal POWER. You don’t need to be Machiavellian. You do need to be more prepared.”(People vs Algorithms)
FULL STACK STRATEGY & CRYPTONESIA
Troy leans into the full stack metaphor, so here is a piece by Faris on his take on Full Stack Strategy and cryptonesia. “All these agencies created strategist roles to fight their way upstream to the client table, to spawn budget for their ideas, to justify all those ongoing retainers. Managing all these little strategies continues to drive clients to madness.” (Medium)
BRAND BOOK ONBOARDING
(Twitter Thread ) Because Twitter is broken you may have to refresh the page at least once to get the thread to load…
Want to chat, comment, question, compliment?
:: AND NOW :: RIP VAN WINKLE
Rock City is a tourist resort in which you walk through some pleasantly dressed cave and rock formations with various soundscapes and art and whatnot. It’s quite lovely, and was really busy on a Wednesday so is seemingly popular, and features a ravelike UV cave which relates various American fairytales, myths, legends, cultural stories (?) and suchlike. t
Rip Van Winkle started as a short story but soon got incorporated into the myth structure of the USA. You know the key part of the story - he falls asleep for twenty years. This is a fun fantasy device to allow the author to explore the incredible changes America had gone through over two decades as they became an independent nation. However, the story has a little twist, often overlooked.
The story begins because Rip spends all his time idling at the pub. His wife nags him about it and he goes off to find peace where he has a magic sleeping adventure and awakes to find the whole world completely different!
Sadly finding his wife dead, he moves in with his daughter and returns to spending his time in the pub because, ultimately, plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
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 | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @faris is still “tweeting” while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)
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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. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, 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 :)