Re-Positioning - Week 1

Re-packaging my talents, skills, abilities and IP requires a new profile. Putting my content into new context means re-positioning myself for others who expect me to still deliver the same stuff…the stuff that I no longer enjoy doing. I still want to do the same stuff but in a new way and in an new environment or context. My purpose gets applied in a whole new and different way, for different people. This means new products!

Gone are the old ways of communication and media – replaced by something much more personal and creative. I’m still doing communication, media – but the formats and channels have changed. This is much more dynamic, more edgy, more close to my nature.

Collaboration has always come easy to me. Building creative teams and meshing them with account teams and putting them into a international multi-cultural playing field with lots of strangely diverse clients is part of the advertising and media culture. I want that creative buzz back in my life. Running a biz doesn’t do it.

I figured it out finally - the edge of great teams working out what seems like impossible communication concepts that work in any culture around the world and negotiating them through a political minefield and an impossible budget – now that does it. When it’s right, it clicks. (Watch the film, Sea Biscuit, and you’ll be touched by the strength of spirit that comes alive with the right people and in the right context, not just for the human spirit, but horse spirit as well.)

Social media not only changes the playing field, but, in many ways, levels it. Content and context are rolled into one delicious mix. Knowing how to generate content and position it gives me a new edge in this world.

We no longer need the agencies – we can script the scenarios more authentically, capture them on video and deliver them in multiple formats and through multiple channels with an affordable budget. Social media makes it easy to visualize and communicate strategies important to building a brand and opening new ways to connect and grow value at every contact point. This is much more fun and so much less stressy than advertising. Advertising is heavy, complex, expensive and limited in its reach. Social media is personal and touches people in the right way, with the right message coming through the right channel in the right format with the appropriate products and services that support and connect people, their purpose and their community.

Example: I no longer want to play the role of “the boss”. Instead, I want to replace that role with the role of inner guide or leadership coach, helping younger people build personal strategies on how to create value for themselves and others. This doesn’t mean that I will give up coaching CEO’s or leading groups, but it means that I will expand that specific talent into more collaborative environments. Because I understand business models and the impact they have on corporate choices, this gives me a role in helping corporations build dynamic innovation teams. I still get to create something in the end that produces results and opens up new ways, new products, new formats with new value and new revenue streams.

So, have you thought about repackaging your content lately to make it more relevant?