Strands of Genius: Stucktopia, The Business of Art, Mohawk Chevrolet's Office
Plus: Laws of Communication & a Mongolian Rave
WRITING FROM | Chattanooga, TN
WORKING ON | writing, new talk (OOO exciting), workshops for new client
LOOKING AHEAD
July 24-27 | Isla Mujeres, MX
July 29-Aug 13 | Chattanooga, TN
Aug 15-18 | Charlotte, NC
Aug 18-?? | Chattanooga, TN
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
This past weekend Faris stayed at home and Rosie got washed out at a rain-stops-play dinner in Nashville. Cousin Haynes has come to look after the house for us and Faris made him watch Young Guns 2 last night. We are off to Mexico tomorrow to hang out in Isla Mujeres with Faris’ dad for the first time and it will be mostly vacation (Faris is bad at logistics and arranged calls and such but otherwise).
In other news, well there was quite a lot of it and we really can’t right now. But we are hopeful, which is enough for this action packed episode of Strands. We are Faris & Rosie, it’s Tuesday sometime in July, half way through the year, and the year is going to be really weird, much weirder than it has been, hold on, we can do it. Together.
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Haynes, Morgan&Colin, Madison, Rachel Judy, Slow Horses, Young Guns 2, Daddio&Janka, Katie T, Isla, ARF, Mindfire, Mediacat, & YOU.
:: THE LINKS ::
MOHAWK CHEVROLET IS MY FAVORITE SHOW
Should all advertising be considered as episodes from an ongoing series?
Imagine if The Office took place at a car dealership.
And that Michael Scott was a 22-year-old recent grad named Grace.
Instead of Scranton, PA it took place in Ballston Spa, NY.
Well, then you’d have the hit TikTok series “The Dealership” from Mohawk Chevrolet. The nine episode (and counting) season has a cumulative viewership of 5.7M on TikTok alone. (Milk Karten Substack) (Click the image below to get straight to the series)
THE BUSINESS OF ART IS FAME
What makes art valuable? “To be more accurate — and avoid extremely complex conversations about hedonic and cultural and other sorts of ‘value’ that cannot be contained in this column — what makes any particular piece of art worth more money than another? This is still a staggeringly complex question but let’s have a go at it.” Faris comes up with the answer in his new column and is excited to be following it up with a podcast with a very special guest… Stay tuned! (MediaCat)
WELCOME TO STUCKTOPIA
We had noticed this weird echoing across various different mostly sci-fi shows we were watching and we have undoubtedly experienced this odd malaise, this feeling…this piece gives it a name and resonates in various way throughout. “Television has managed to uncannily capture the way life feels right now.
Want to chat, comment, question, compliment?
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:: ANOTHER SET OF COMMUNICATION LAWS ::
Organisational Change Management Volume 2
The 10 Laws of Human Communication
It's not what the message does to the listener, but what the listener does with our message that determines our success as communicators.
Listeners generally interpret messages in a way which makes them feel comfortable and secure.
When people's attitudes are attacked head-on, they are likely to defend those attitudes, and in the process reinforce them.
People pay most attention to messages which are relevant to their own circumstances and points of view.
People who feel insecure in a relationship are unlikely to be good listeners.
People are more likely to listen to us if we also listen to them.
People are more likely to change in response to a combination of new experience and communication than in response to communication alone.People are more likely to support a change which affects them if they are consulted before the change is made.
The message in what is said will be interpreted with respect to the how, when, where and by whom it is said.
Lack of self-knowledge and an unwillingness to resolve our own internal conflicts makes it harder to communicate with other people.
(source: Hugh Mackay, 1998)
Due to platform wars, we can’t embed this rave video from Ulan Bator but it’s worth watching to the end (it’s short).
https://x.com/SaschaAmato/status/1814747277858382067
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 :)