Fossum Creative Blog

Amazon Finally Solves the Compact Disc Conundrum

I finally stopped buying CDs a few years ago. They were all just ending up on my iPod and then gathering dust on my shelf and taking up space.

Unless I already had an existing CD library of the band in question (Metallica, Rush, and other favorites that I got into at the dawn of the CD era), I made a conscious decision to enter the new digital era gracefully and enthusiastically and purchase everything from iTunes like a normal person.

There was only one problem. I miss getting new CDs.

I miss ripping off the plastic and prying open that annoying seal on the top and pulling out the booklet and looking at pictures and reading lyrics and holding it all in my hands.The album artwork always helped define what colors I would see in my head when I listened to the album and how I would feel when I heard the music. (Those who "see" music in colors will understand.)

On the other hand, we've all grown tired of waiting. For anything. Including the music we want to hear the moment we want to hear it. When I want a new album, I don't want to wait a few days for the CD to arrive in the mail. I want to hear the music now. We're all much more impatient than we were ten years ago.

So iTunes.

The problem for me, however, is that iTunes is not the reliable and wonderful seamless experience I want it to be at all times. For some reason, my library seems a bit corrupt and songs aren't transferring onto my iDevices and iCloud is a joke and right now I'm just feeling completely frustrated by the whole thing.

I want my MCDs!

Which is why I'm so excited by the notice I just got about Amazon and their new AutoRip program. It lets me have my cake and eat it, too. Which is an expression I've never really understood, but I feel like it applies here.

With Amazon AutoRip, I can buy a physical CD with all its liner note glory and photos and visual joys. And as soon as I do so, I can instantly download the album in MP3 format, put it onto my iPhone or whatever, and go for a run. It is the ultimate best of both worlds solution.

From a business perspective, I think this is a great move by Amazon to counter the competition from iTunes, which pretty much dominates the industry and rightly so. Because if I'm going to pay $11.99 for an album, I may as well get a physical copy as well to do with as I please. It's worth that extra step or two to get the songs from the Cloud Player onto my own iTunes. At least I have a physical backup of my music and I get to keep the music experience a bit more visual.

Of course, I'm also in the minority of people who still like to buy entire albums. And I'll obviously buy my singles from iTunes. But for those of us who still like to hold music, I think this is a smart move by Amazon.

Business By Design: You Have to Stop to Keep Going

This upcoming September will mark the 10-year anniversary of Fossum Creative. More specifically, it will mark the decade that has passed since I got laid off from my last full-time job and decided to branch out on my own and follow what I believed to be my true calling.

At this point, I have spent a quarter of my life working for myself, chasing project after project, rowing through the ebbs and flows that is business ownership. It is all I know. It is exhausting. It is exciting. It is fun. And it is terrifying. (Sometimes all in the same day.) And it is the second most rewarding this I have ever done. 

The most rewarding thing I have ever done is the ongoing project of being a dad. I have built my adult life and my business around trying to be the best father possible for my son. When I'm comparing myself to the Joneses and beating myself up for not having this or not having done that or not being exactly where I thought I'd be at this point in my life, I remind myself of one thing: raising my son is my top priority in life.

I designed my entire business around that. And because of it, I have been there for every milestone and special moment in his life. Sure, it isn't always the smoothest path, but most things that are worthwhile aren't. We make choices and we go with them. The Joneses have their own sets of sacrifices to make and they experience their rewards in their own ways. We do what works for us.

All of this is coming up for me because I just finished watching Scott Stratten's presentation at TEDx called "Keep Going Until We Stop." He ties his experiences as a father and as a social media Big Deal back around into the reminder that our culture is taught (trained) to keep going at all costs.

Through heartbreak, tragedy, triumph, ruin, success, we just keep going and keep going, no matter the toll it takes on our personal, emotional, physical, or spiritual lives. We are constantly connected to the outside world through smartphones and tweets and updates, but we need to shut them off every once in a while and appreciate what's right in front of us. We have to stop to keep going. Because it can all disappear at any given moment.

I can't encourage you enough to set aside the 15-minutes it takes to watch his presentation below. May it find you at a place in your life when you can stop long enough to acknowledge that you're on the right path and doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing. 

 

 

 

You can follow Scott on Twitter at @unmarketing and definitely read his book Unmarketing. I just finished it last night and there are truths and rants in there that made me smile ear to ear.

 

Living the Meme: What Marketers Really Do

 

I realize the hoops at the bottom should have flames, but I couldn't find any.

Here are a few of the "What we really do" images that didn't make the cut. Though it doesn't make them any less accurate. 

(All these images were found using Google. Their photographers all deserve mad props.)

 

Where Do You Find Inspiration?

The inspiration for creativity comes in different forms for different people. For me, it comes in the form of music and movies. For years, I tried to figure out why this was the case. It was a giant revelation when I realized that it was the way music and movies made me feel. One song could change my entire mood for the better. Or if I desired, for the worse. (Sometimes you just need to go there.) Movies have the same power. And while I watch fewer than I used to and most of them aren't that good, the ones that hit me stay with me forever. 

One of my favorite songwriters is a gentleman by the name of Brian Fallon. He is the frontman of The Gaslight Anthem, as well as his side-project The Horrible Crowes. His music and lyrics moves me in ways I can't explain and inspires me to become a better writer myself.

The Horrible Crowes' album 'Elsie' was my soundtrack for the second half of 2011 and contains more soul-shattering lyrics than I know what to do with. If you get a chance, you need to check it out. 

To get to my point though, it's always interesting to see who inspires the people who inspire you. And it's even more interesting to hear why this is the case. Often times, they say it better than you ever could. Which is why I so thoroughly enjoyed this article about Brian's influences - not just for who those influences are, but for the way he describes them.

A few of the highlights really speak to the creative process:

"I love songs or movies or books that, if somebody asked you what the movie was about, you’d be like, 'I don’t know man, but it feels like this…' That’s what I care about – the emotion coming through and that kind of sentiment." 

"When you listen to a song and you’re influenced by it, what that really means is you’re trying to steal the essence, or at least, that’s how it is for me and some of my friends. You try and take what you can and make it your own. When it’s movies, there isn’t something specific that you can steal. It’s a feeling you have to re-create in a different way that relates to your life."

You can read the entire article here and when you're done, do yourself a favor and go listen to "Elsie" by the Horrible Crowes, just about anything by Gaslight Anthem, or whatever it is that inspires you to do your best creative work.

Then see what happens.

Have you met Beth?

Fossum Creative recently completed a business documentary for Beth Schneider of Process Prodigy (www.processprodigy.com). Behind the scenes trivia: if the background looks similar to the one in the Kelly O'Neal video, that's because they were both filmed in the same location—Kelly's backyard. Beth was so excited for us to create this video that she flew up to Los Gatos from Orange County for the night just to make it happen.

Hope you'll take a minute to enjoy the video and learn more about why systems rock and why every business, big or small, needs to have them in place. And if you'd like a business documentary for your own business (big or small) please contact us at 408.354.9977 and we'll make it happen for you.

 

 

 

A Little Backstory

Back in 2003, I got the bug to start a new business. The idea was to create personal documentaries for families with the end result being a video portrait on a DVD that could be passed down from generation to generation.

I produced a few videos and loved every moment of it. The thrill of shooting and interviewing. The zen of editing it all together. And the unforgettable experiences of watching my clients see the final product for the first time. I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life.

Of course, two other things were also happening in my life at this time. I was starting a career as a freelance copywriter and picking up jobs as best I could. And my then-wife was expecting our first baby. She was also expecting me to get income coming in fast on account of said baby. Fair enough.

In time, the copywriting projects starting coming in very regularly. And soon, they were my mainstay. My career as a freelance copywriter took off and I decided to apply all my energy towards going down that path.

I sold my expensive video camera in exchange for a smaller one and a nice DSLR camera so I could conveniently capture all of my son’s moments. I reluctantly took down the website for Biographique Films, as my video venture had been dubbed, and moved forward with Fossum Creative with great success.  

As much as I love writing copy and love the business I have created, every few months I would still get that urge to revive the video business. Then I would get wrapped up again in projects and fatherhood and never get around to it. Soon my focus would be back on Fossum Creative and the business of writing great copy.

However, last December the bug bit again. Strong. But this time, the timing seemed right. Fossum Creative is established and growing and ready for some expansion and new services.

At its core, this business is about communicating with people. Telling a story. Getting them to feel something good. Compelling them to take action. We do it with words. In small paragraphs. Step by step until the entire story is told.

It got me to thinking about the other way we tell stories. Through pictures both still and moving. Through the careful combination of these images with the right soundtrack. In just a few moments, a video can tell a story, convey a message, and create a response that could take pages to achieve with words. If it was possible at all.

Then something else happened. I saw the Google Super Bowl ad. And something inside me just clicked. It was not about huge production value. It was not about over-the-top visuals and expensive sets and giant budgets.

It was about connecting with an audience through the power of visual storytelling. Creating a visceral response in a very short time and making it last. And if we can do this with words, what’s to stop us from also doing it with video? Nothing. In fact, I think we’ll be able to do it even better.

Video marketing. Coming soon to Fossum Creative.  

Free Screen Capture Video Software

Just received an email from Alex Mandossian which sent me to a great new application called Jing. It lets you take video screen shots of your desktop so you can do demos and then share them with colleagues.

The intro video is worth its weight in gold and a great example of excellent copy. I'll probably start using this right away to create some demos. Will keep you posted. In the meantime, check it out for yourself:

www.jingproject.com

Have fun.

Fantastic New Feature in Mac OS X Leopard

I installed Mac OS X Leopard last week and while it's great and everything, I just discovered a new feature that is going to significantly boost my productivity.

In Safari 3.0, there is a tool that lets you paste portions of a web page into the Dashboard. (It's that scissor icon in the toolbar.) Then when you want to see them, you just open Dashboard and they show up.

I've put the news section of Yahoo home page, my Facebook profiles, and several more on there.

How does this improve my productivity?

They are my default pages I go to when I take writing breaks. But they can suck a large part of my hour away. Now I just press a button and instantly see all the web info I want to see, and then it's right back to work.

Ah, Apple. What will they think of next?