Strands of Genius: Weird World of Crisp Flavors, Mind-Wandering, X-Mas Jammies
Plus: reflections from the year & a ponytailed dude
WRITING FROM | Chattanooga, TN
WORKING ON | settling into our house! intro meetings, final meetings of the year.
LOOKING AHEAD
Dec 18-20 | Chattanooga, TN
Dec 20-27 | Nashville, TN
Dec 27-Jan 10 | Chattanooga, TN
Jan 10-24 | Beersheba Springs, TN
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
It’s crazy to think that we’re already coming up on the end of the year. This time last year, we were already starting to scheme about a longer term sabbatical, including a trip to Japan. And now, the sabbatical has come and gone! Any other year, the year would have been defined by the trip. But looking back, our year has been broken up into four parts: celebrating 10 years of being nomads (Jan-March), looking for a house (March-July), taking a sabbatical (Aug-Nov), and playing house (Aug-Dec, but especially Nov/Dec). It was a year where more-so than ever, we slotted work around life, rather than the other way around. It felt great. And it was a great reminder that taking a break doesn’t have to be bad for business. We expected this year would be one for personal growth, rather than business growth (because: sabbatical), but a quick peek at the numbers before our annual reconciliation and we’re hovering right around last year’s numbers. Whether you’re working for yourself, or working for a large organization, please give yourself the gift of boredom at least once a year. And know that just because you’re not actively working doesn’t necessarily mean your earning potential diminishes. It’s a lesson we’ve head to remind ourselves of repeatedly, but there’s never been a time when we’ve regretted our breaks.
In between life, we’ve worked with a number of amazing people on fun projects that kept us on our toes. Some of our favorites included:
We continued our work with a large food and beverage group (and 8+ different brand teams within the organization) to help them think more strategically, and to increase creative effectiveness.
We sat on the advisory board of a telecoms company, and helped them think about how to innovate in a stagnant sector.
We led a full day workshop with a team of young media leaders, helping them think about the impacts of AI and how to grow their careers.
We helped a global media agency develop and launch their internal positioning… and then got tapped by another agency in the same network to help them do the same. (That was quite a vote of confidence!)
We supported a global media company, developing and hosting a leadership summit.
We worked with three different agencies on developing collaborative tools and practices, to help them work better with each other and their clients.
We spoke at events in New York, London, California, Berlin, and Sydney, and jammed with our friend Mark Pollard on his Sweathead Do-Together.
We’ve been really enjoying the positioning work we’ve been doing with agencies, and we continue to love workshops and trainings that help people work smarter, not harder. Our series of trainings on creative effectiveness has *almost* surpassed our trainings on briefs when it comes to bookings/requests so we’re both curious to see how that plays out next year.
As for what is on our agenda for next year? I keep thinking to myself that 2024 will be all about moving from GO!! → slowwwwwww. (As a strategist, I can’t help that even when it comes to my personal life, that strategy lens comes into play.) While we don’t know what the year holds, we’re hoping to give ‘a year of slow’ a go. Fewer flights, and fewer times packing our suitcase. More time to reflect on the next stage of life we want to create, and more time building community in/around Chattanooga. (If you know anyone in Chattanooga that could be a collaborator or client, or just really nice and smart friend to us, we would love your introductions!)
Thank you, dear readers, for allowing us in your inbox each week, for your questions, comments, and kind words. This newsletter is a labor of love, and we always appreciate hearing from you. We hope that you have a wonderful winter season, and that the year ahead is filled with happiness and health. We’ve got one final guest curator this year, and then we’ll be back in January. See you on the other side :)
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Will & Corey, Angel & his team installing our island countertop (bye bye plywood!), Kim at Mountain City Tile, Rachel & Mike & Chase & Stella, The Dunlop’s Annual Holiday Party, Archer, & YOU.
:: THE LINKS ::
THE WEIRD, SECRETIVE WORLD OF CHIP/CRISP FLAVORS
Every single day we were in Koh Lanta, Thailand, we would cycle to one of the four 7-Elevens to pick a snack for the day. (We learned early on that if we bought ALL THE SNACKS then we ate, well, ALL THE SNACKS. And so a daily trip was necessary.) One of the best parts about traveling in Asia/the Antipodes is just how different the chip flavors are. And it always sparks a conversation between myself and Faris asking “Why do we get stuck with the lamest flavors in the USA?” The UK is not that much better in terms of number of varieties, but they do have loads of meat flavors, so in that sense, they are that much better off over in the UK, ha. But the US and the UK both miss out on all the fish flavors, and I don’t know if I’ve ever tasted a better chip than the salmon sushi crisps I bought in Hong Kong. And I haven’t even gotten to try rose petal chips, or cola flavors, or sweet flavors like butter caramel. If you, too, love all of the limited-edition chips, you’re definitely going to want to go down this rabbit hole! (The Guardian)
MIND WANDERING: A BENEFIT AND A CURSE
Psychologist Jonathan Smallwood began studying distraction (“mind wandering” as he calls it) nearly 25 years ago. “Smallwood learned that unhappy minds tend to wander in the past, while happy minds often ponder the future. He also became convinced that wandering among our memories is crucial to help prepare us for what is yet to come. Though some kinds of mind-wandering — such as dwelling on problems that can’t be fixed — may be associated with depression, Smallwood now believes mind-wandering is rarely a waste of time. It is merely our brain trying to get a bit of work done when it is under the impression that there isn’t much else going on.” (Knowable)
10 YEARS OF CHRISTMAS JAMMIES
Faris and I decided to watch The Amazing Race, after thinking I had invented this idea for a show, and then having multiple people tell us that the show already exists (ha.) (It’s great, y’all. We love it. We can’t wait to win it.) We picked a season at random, and it turned out that Penn and Kim from the Holderness Family, who we absolutely adore. And then, just as we finished the season, the algorithm served up this gem — a viral classic that gets stuck in my head every year, but updated 10 years in. The video is below, and here are some of their reflections from the past 10 years. (When I played this for Faris, he said “Remember when the internet used to be good?” lol)
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:: I PICK BOTH ::
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Love this ponytailed dude and how he won’t let this go — because he nailed it. Either/or is a false binary and you can indeed have both economic stability and LGTBQ+ rights.
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
MERRY HAPPY EVERYTHING!
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 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 :)