January 27th 2009
I remember back during the Vietnam War, hearing the daily body count on the news. These days, the daily body count tallies the unemployed. It’s what we’ve come to.
We choose to look on the bright side. One step in front of the other. Day by day. Proactive, not reactive.
Yes, 10 jobs saved today.
January 23rd 2009
The Soffer Collective’s 2009 Poster Show, in partnership with ArtistsandCreatives and IVRepresents, will fight Breast Cancer, a cause near and dear to us. We have had way too much personal experience with this nasty disease this year and are all on the bandwagon to do everything we can to stop it dead in its tracks.
This will be an exciting year, with shows in two cities and a roster of renowned artists submitting their Posters for silent auction. These include:
+ Poster Show Creator and Artist Manny Prieres
+ International photographic artist Thomas Hodges, who created the Imaginism Art Movement (buncut.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-poster-show-2009-fort)
+ 2007 Whitney Biennial Winner Bert Rodriguez.
Artists are invited to submit, and works will be subject to a curatorial procedure for exhibition selection.
January 23rd 2009
Rare for me to see 3am with eyes wide open. At least not since the way-more-fun-than-these days of Studio 54. Lots to think about, and things go bump in the night.
And then, when down seems the only direction available, I hear from great friend and uber-agent provacateur Joe Lombardo and he kicks me out of my self-indulgent reverie with this:
“My heroes are those who adapt and survive and don’t bitch about the journey.” Joe Lombardo
I very muchly want to be one of Joe’s heroes. He is one of mine. I know what I need to do.
January 23rd 2009
This will be the era of the small business. We feel it in our bones. It’s time to look in your own backyard and support the small businesses that reside there.
To this end, the Soffer Collective will soon be announcing the details of our annual Poster Show, which is a local charity event honoring a local person. While the world is taking so much away from us all right now, we feel a great need to give back. Stay tuned for details. In the meantime, below is an article courtesy of Yankelovich you you might find interesting.
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January 21st 2009
YOU GO OBAMA! Do your thing and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
January 20th 2009
For 9, let humanity once again prevail. Let peace reign. Let kindness rule our
days and a loving sense of community keep us focused in hard times. Be friends
with one another. Be a family. Fighting doesn’t work.
We all have the same goal. And a real opportunity to reach it.
Yes, the tears are flowing.
Yes, America! The world watches.
And yes, we’re lookin’ good.
January 18th 2009
Managing client expectations is the single most difficult aspect of client service. We work very hard at this and are 99% successful. That’s a pretty good average and one that we have developed over time.
But that 1% failure breaks hearts, spirits, friendship and the bank, all in one fell swoop.
Our Business is Personal is right up there on our wall, and we live by it. Failures are very serious and painful for us. We operate like a family and care greatly about everyone we work with.
Interestingly, when a problem happens, we always find a common denominator. And that is lack of trust on the part of the client.
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A “non-professional client” (we mean this respectfully- this is usually a small business owner who is not a trained marketing person) can’t or won’t trust a process they don’t understand. I have seen it time and again. It makes sense on one level, but it is a client’s responsibility to understand what they are asking an agency to deliver and then be uber-responsive along the way if they are not understanding. Then it’s the agency’s responsibility to explain.
Ask questions! Reply to information! Communicate communicate communicate!
There are no bad questions except for those not asked. And generally, by the time the client decides to focus on this part of the process, it’s too late and a big, unnecessary problem has been created.
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There is a learning curve that this type of client must undergo. Clients need to educate themselves as to the process - and the lingo - of what it is they are ordering, whether it is web, print, interactive, electronic or whatever. And the agency needs to teach to the best of its ability. Each discipline has a process that we follow. Our job is to convey this process to the client as best we can.
We want to be our clients’ Par+ner! We want to help, smooth the way, explain, teach, listen or whatever. But when a client ignores the explanation, we are all at a loss.
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We have found that the most damage-causing word in business is ”assume.”
Clients cannot assume the agency reads minds. The agency cannot assume that clients will ask questions about things they don’t understand.
So we will continue to work to improve our part of this. We want nothing more than success for our client Par+ners. And equitable, harmonious solutions to client issues.
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As an aside: 2008 was a devastating year for just about everyone. We have an opportunity as a country to take a deep breath, look to the light instead of the dark, and trust that our new leadership will take us in a healing direction. And when we need to ask questions, ask them from a point of solution, not anger or destruction.
Remember–You need to be the change you want to see. [Mahatma Gandhi]
That is The Soffer Collec+ive’s mantra for 2009.
We wish peace, love and patience. Namaste to all.
PJS
January 11th 2009
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My sister and I wrote “Mom Said” for Mom’s 75th birthday. It is a compendium of her history, her life with my dad and our family, and the written record of the charm and wit that came from this simple woman from the Midwest who fiercely raised six happy, successful children.
Even then we could see the decline. This weekend, a difficult five years and six residences later, I placed my parents into what I hope will be their final nursing home.
Dementia has robbed them of their house, car, pet, security, thoughts, memories and health. Their possessions have been reduced to two small plastic bags’ worth.
Today I gave copies of “Mom Said” to the floor nurses at their new residence. I want them to know that the woman in room 7W and the man in 6B are still people. I want them to know my parents had a life. And love. And are loved.
And that when they go, they will leave a lovely human legacy, which is a much more important measure of a person than things.
