My New Years Mantra!

My New Years Mantra!

To all of you, that have contributed in whatever way to my life this year ... 
Whoever you are, and however you did, I thank you!

To everyone that smiled, laughed and sung along to the music of my life, your harmonies made my life richer! Thank-you!!


To those of you that were angry, hated, shouted, screamed and scorned me in whatever way...I'm sorry YOUR year was crap...I hope next year serves you better! 

As we head into another amazing year, filled to the brim with opportunity, I urge you all to stop and smell the roses...life is exactly what you make it...no more, and no less!

Thank you all for 2012!
My 2013 is going to be fucking amazing,

I sincerely wish that for each and every one of you too!

Onwards and Upwards kids!
Much love and laughter.
A

The C Word...Not lekker!

So those of you that follow me in the FaceBook, know I am in the middle of a punch up with a large and well known "Celebrity" in a senior position in a media organisation. He reneged on a media deal he committed to, I assume deliberately to prove his status and power over me (it worked, I was quivering in my crocs) , and then sent me abusive text messages calling me a C*NT.

I use the "C" word ...(Celebrity)....very lightly as I am not a fan of fans, and dont believe status or perceived stature gives anyone the right to preside over me like a King over his Queen.

Chatting to my kids one night about "values" in life, I used a first hand experience of a client I had the privilege of working with. He was a "small" businessman and Entrepreneur called Richard Branson (you may have heard of him). His left toe nail is probably worth more than my entire career will amount to, yet a more humble, quiet and profoundly polite person you will never meet.


Anyway, having made a bit of a habit of using this blogging forum to engage senior management in lively debate around the errors of their ways, I banged off a blog.
Its factual in every sense...
It is non emotional...
It states my case perfectly clearly against this "Celebrity" and the total contempt he shows for the people around him, clients and staff alike...I am not lucky enough to be an isolated incident in his power hungry egotistical abuse of people and power, he has left a trail of destruction in the wake of his ego.

The blog is sitting in my drafts, but I dont think its every going to see the public domain.

And here is why.

For the first time, in this particular forum - the incident I am taking on is about the actions, and subsequent re-actions of an individual, not a brand! Its pretty clear from my blogs I have zero problem taking on the large corporates if I believe I am being shafted.

My open CEO letters have elicited response in 100% of the postings!

But...

I am a business owner myself, and whilst I accept that I am ultimately accountable for every person carrying my logo on their business card or e-mail signature, I also fully accept that my own staff are all individuals too, with their own personalities and strengths as well as weaknesses!

Against that, I have decided to take the matter internally to the MD and CEO of the organisation this "Celebrity" represents!

Internally, off-line and quietly behind the scenes.

It may not have the desired public outcry effect that I could probably easily drum-up in the school of public opinion (especially given this "Celebrity's" track record) but I think it's only fair that the brand he is associated with be given every reasonable opportunity to address the situation without having to tumble dry their dirty laundry in full view of the playground.

It almost certainly won't have the desired effect.
I am almost certain he won't lose his job. (although I think he should!)
I am almost certain he won't lose much sleep about it...as a "Celebrity" he will genuinely see nothing wrong with his actions, easily justifying them to his superiors, who because of his status will almost certainly brush this under the carpet and carry on.

But, I know I have handled the situation correctly and with the respect, and professionalism it deserves.

After all, I may indeed be at C*NT, but at least I'm not a "Celebrity"....like him!
Ahem!
Onwards and Upwards!

Kiss and Make-Up...easier said than done!

AN OPEN LETTER TO BORIS SHESTOPALOV -  COUNTRY MANAGER AVON SOUTH AFICA

Hi Boris, hope you dont mind me calling you that.

You dont know me, but I've contributed to the marketing of your organisation.

I would love to give you my Job Title or Company Name, but it wouldn't help!

You see, you wont find me in any supplier database!
You wont find a purchase order written out for services rendered, or concepts procured.

Why you may ask?
The reason is quite simple actually!
You stole our ideas!
One ideas actually, and then used them without our consent, or without paying us for them.

So let me take a step back and help paint this picture for you, Boris.

We are a creative brand activation agency - we make money from coming up with cool ideas, and selling them to large corporates. We do this around South Africa, and have clients around the world that acknowledge the value in our ideas, and often use our creative.

Unlike Avon though, the majority of our clients feel the irrepressible moral need to actually PAY US for these - a novel concept I know, but a principle we feel is quite important to the longevity and sustainability of our small operation.

So when we were approached, by one of your marketing team, to come up with some execution ideas for your sales conference. we spent a fair amount of time in our creative studios researching ideas, concepts and solutions. Thats what we do, Boris! Its how we make a living!

We presented these to your marketing team, and after a week or so received a polite "thanks but no thanks" e-mail, naturally meaning you had decided to use someone else. Now before this starts to sound like sour grapes Boris, lets be clear that we were perfectly happy with this decision and took the e-mail at face value to mean just that...you didn't like our ideas, and therefore didn't want to use us.

Now Boris, my mother always taught me as a perfect gentleman that No means No!

Apparently it carries a slightly different meaning in the Avon halls.

For future reference, an Avon No actually means "thanks for all of your intellectual property, do you mind if i use it all without your consent to make my job easier". 

Thats a bit if a mouthful though, so we fully understand where the confusion must have crept in.

So guess what happened next Boris.

We OWN one of the companies that has the EXCLUSIVE rights to one of the ideas we presented.

And imagine our surprise, when out of the blue, another agency called that we have never dealt with before, looking to book the equipment and idea we had presented for an "Avon Conference".

Oops!

When we got all the details from them Boris, imagine our further surprise to find the brief was - well - pretty much exactly as the one we presented.

Oops again!

A Simple Idea!
An Effective Idea!
A Stolen Idea!

Its not a big deal in terms of Dollar Value, Boris, in fact some could argue I've wasted too much energy on this already. But you see I take a slightly different view.

The school of public opinion is pretty harsh on this principle Boris, as the case if Woolworths and Frankies Olde Style Softdrinks has recently proved.

And being passionate people working with a great portfolio of brands, we take it VERY personally when we invest time, money and energy on YOUR brands, to be lied to by Avon staff, and maliciously have our ideas stolen with scant regard for the professional, ethical or moral obligations of the creative process.

Anyway Boris, I hope the Sales Conference is a rousing success. I would be keen to see how many other ideas were presented by other companies that have been "borrowed" by your team.

Heres an idea Boris, maybe check on the other elements of todays conference, and where they came from. Im pretty sure if this happened to us there are others out there that also fell foul of the same theft of intellectual property.

And thats an idea you can have for free Boris!
I wouldn't expect you to pay for it anyway!
Why buck the system?