Let me give you a little bit of back story, because this is funny. The Chick-fil-A cow campaign kicked off with Billboards in 1995 from the Richards Group advertising firm based in Dallas, Texas. Their very influential ad campaigns branched out into cow coupon calendars in 1998. Sometime late 2003 early 2004 the “Mad Cow” disease scare was coming out all over the news. Chick-fil-A temporarily stopped the campaign so as not to make the chain seem insensitive or appear to be taking advantage of the scare to increase its sales. This is when the pitch was made from my friend’s company, shying away from the cow campaign altogether. A few months later, when the scare had calmed down, the cows were put back in action again. They even came out with even a “Super Hero Cows” calendar released later in 2004. Coincidence?

As it was, the pitch was made and didn’t go anywhere. My friend’s company and my friend moved on to other things. My friend and the company he worked for got caught up in other projects, other endeavors and other ventures, and after 5 years, never went back with another pitch for Chik-fil-A all the while the huge marketing campaign success for their cows that continues to grow to this day.

LESSON TWO: YOU HAVE TO WATCH THE TRENDS AND TIME YOUR ACTIONS ACCORDINGLY.

Can you just imagine what would have happened if my friend decided to go the extra mile and actually put a proposal together that would catch attention and come alongside with Chick-fil-A’s mission and endorsements. Or even followed up after the calendar came out with another pitch? Or even after the Superhero Cow Calendar of 2004? Maybe nothing, maybe something, who knows. But at least my friend would have gotten a satisfaction for knowing that he did all he could to make the best pitch possible. It may have resulted in more work for him, more honor from his boss, and a lot more satisfaction for him personally.

How about you? Any near misses that continue to haunt your dreams?

Our story begins 7 years ago, with a small ad company seeking to make a name. They hired my friend to put some comics together from a few pages of a script, to sell an idea to Chick-fil-A and 3 others to make comics for them. They had one script and they reworked portions of the script to tailor it for 4 different clients–all with different artwork, different artists, but essentially the same script. The one thing they had in common is my friend who executed the project for them.

Now, my friend is probably one of the smartest people I know when it comes to marketing and advertising comic books for distribution and resale. He knows the business in and out. He is a marketing guru when it comes to the ideas of targeting a product for a particular customer or client. He told me this story because he knew while he was doing working for this company that this was the wrong approach to go to Chic-fil-A with. (We won’t go into the pitch here, but it was something along the line of pitching WarMachine Barbie to Mattel, or pitching the Chik-fil-A hot dog. It just wasn’t working.)

He ended up putting out the book as planned. Begrudgingly. At that moment, the little creative spark inside him diminshes a little more…

LESSON ONE: YOU HAVE TO EDUCATE YOUR CLIENT TO APPEAL TO YOUR CUSTOMER’S TRUE DESIRES.

I know a great number of you have been in this situation. Your client wants something done. You know it is a bad idea and you do it anyway just to cash a quick check. “This is what the client wants, it’s his dime.” So you shut up, put the nose to the grind stone, and crank out a stupid product because you’ve always been told to satisfy the client. The problem with thinking is that you are satisfying the wrong client. You do want to satisfy the client, but who really is the client…your boss? Or is it your boss’s client? Or is it the customers who will be buying your boss’s client’s products?

Obviously, if you don’t know another direction, it is not your job to do it. If you do approach your boss and your opinions and are shut down, there is nothing you can do about it. What I see too much, though, is that when you start at a company you give your opinions and are shut down so many times that you become complacent and not willing to bother offering creativity. I hope you don’t work in a place like that.

I went in to speak to a college professor a couple years ago, and I overheard another professor asking a student how she should deal with her clients. I remember this moment so profoundly because she said, “I am there to serve my client, my opinion doesn’t matter.” I was floored–and angry. I was not mad at the student. I was mad at the whole system for indoctrinating her to believing this! I kept thinking, “Why would your client hire you in the first place?” They obviously need your talent and want your influence or they would find someone else. You are unique, you are creative, you can do what no one else in the world can do.

I came across a quote the other day: “They hired my hands, they can get my brain for free!” Employers, engage your employees. One reason I believe there will be a great influx into the home based businesses is because many employers fail to realize their most valuable asset is the people you have around you. When people aren’t feeling valued, they leave. Maybe more bosses will realize this before it is too late.

I’ve also got some BIG things coming for a lucky few. More on that later.

Right now, go to www.discipledeep.com fill in the opt-in box, it will allow me to get to know you a little more personally and we can start building a better relationship together. I’m also posting 2 new entries over there. So what are you waiting for? Check it out.

www.discipledeep.com

Everything we talked about was this sharing of information and ideas and knowledge and vision and hope for the future. We only talk about one or two things every other month. But there is a common path that we are on now and what we are experiencing is a MOVEMENT that is taking place in America right now. Some are already experiencing it, and it is no respecter of person. There has never been another time in history which is getting ready to unfold. We are just in the on the outside fringes of it. This really is one of those incredible, life changing moments that we will look back on and can probably pinpoint the exact date and the exact time that we (my friend and I) first came in contact with the cusp of change in the culture and decided to act.

This has the potential to literally CHANGE — THE — WORLD. I can’t believe I’m the one writing this. You can pinpoint to great times in history and you know when people took action to stand up for what they believe and to rise above the “status quo” with the coming of the “Industrial Revolution” or to stand up against evil oppressors as with “World War II”. You can pinpoint even social trends or fads from the “Vietnam/Peace” era of the ’70s to the “Dot Com Bust” in early 2000. Even today you see “Social Media” trending like wildfire and political unrest with the start of a “Tea Party”.

The crazy thing about this movement is that it’s roots have always been here. It’s foundations were laid as this country developed, and ironically enough, as technology increased, we moved away from it. And now as technology increases even more, we are moving back to it, but in a greater degree than we could even have imagined. It may start out slow with warning signs. Or it may catch fire quickly. It may reach millions, maybe billions twenty years from now. Or it may just reach you right now.

I did not make this movement. I am only watching this movement unfold before our eyes. And this is the part where a great many of you will want to close your eyes and go back to work. If you read on and don’t fully embrace this movement, that WILL take place, your life will be over. It is like going down Alice’s ‘Rabbit Hole’ or taking Neo’s ‘Red Pill’. Unfortunately for you, there will be no climbing out. sleepless nights, horrid dreams, and a feeling of complete uselessness and despair await you if do not fully embrace the movement once it grips you. There are a great many people who have gone before us and a great many will continue to do so after us on both sides. Accept or Reject. If you choose to reject, reject now before it is too late. Although, if you are reading this post, I imagine it may already be too late.

The only reason that they will call this a movement is because there will eventually be so many people catching on and actually taking action on what I am telling you, that they will have no choice but to classify it as such. There are only two events that have ever given me enough sensational foresight to actually know the truth of which I speak. I will share with you one of those events now.

THE PREPARATION: When you realize your deepest calling–that passion in the innermost being of your soul that defines who you are… and you are so in tune with that calling that your insides feel like they are on the outside, radiating out from every fiber of your being… you know you are close to an awakening moment to embrace this movement.

THE TRANSITION: One day you will finally get it. One day you will finally realize that “I choose what actions I take”. One day the light bulb will turn on. And when you turn on a light bulb from your soul, it DOES NOT easily go out. The urge for your spirit to be set free from a time prison that sucks your life, will emphatically cause you to LOATHE your job to the breaking point. Here is where you decide to join the movement, take action, and live! or retreat to another career path, another job… and die!

THE MOVEMENT: So what is this movement that I speak of? I will be very succinct and very clear. People will be so tired of being caged in an industrial mentality from working in a job- that it will seem like they have “no choice” of their own volition to stay in a particular job. They will not be able to stand working out of their talent zone. They will feel like their life is rotting beneath them the longer they stay in this particular environment. So, they will break out on their own. They will run their own businesses that is integrated with their lifestyle and their soul. They will try. They will fail. They will fail again. They will fail again. They will fail again. They will fail again. –They will succeed. When people see so many other people breaking free from the rut, they will break free too, and it will cause tremendous ripples of Microsoft-ian proportions. This exodus from the uninspiring workplace to “calling-centered passionate vocations” will be the “movement”. People will enjoy their work. It will be hard for them. They will love it. They will profit exponentially. Some of that profit will be money. They will make a living. They may even be monetarily wealthy.

THE RESULT: People will connect with other people who each have other businesses, they will barter, they will trade the most valuable commodity–time. They will exchange goods and services, they will buy what they need or want. They will give what they don’t. The poor will always be with them. There will still be companies who exploit their workers. There will still be “big business” there will still be “small business”, there will be home based business. There will be company based businesses. The point is … people will be using and developing their “sweet spot” for their talent to flourish. There will be leaders. There will be workers. There will be rock stars. People will be happier, closer connected, and have time with their families or friends. Family will value the time with their loved ones.

IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES: A person who loves to organize or cook develops a business to shop for her customers groceries for the week. Schools, colleges, institutions wouldn’t have to exist because the teachers would be teaching their own students and getting paid privately. The lessons they get can be anywhere from well-rounded curriculum to apprenticeships. Children who could not afford private lessons would get all their lessons from automated Video teachings. Comic book teams believe in a common goal, share their talents, make a book, sell the book, and split the profits.

The ECONOMY of FREE becomes commonplace and the commodity of TIME is the great equalizer.

This idea is not new. It is happening now. It has been happening for a long time. It has not happened yet to the extent that would classify a movement, but it soon will. You have to decide which side you will be on? Choose Life!

I wonder what trendy name they will call it.

“One should not aim at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.”
– Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, 1st century, AD)

Well, I thought I had a pretty catchy title going on here

…Unfathomable Training for Artistic Leaders…

Unfathomable meaning “impossible to measure” as in: “We can’t measure how deep this ocean of knowledge is that I am going to share with you because it is so great in mass and quantity that it is UNFATHOMABLE to conceive how one could impart so much wisdom.”

Of course, I failed to even contemplate the other meaning of the word. 

un·fath·om·a·ble

(ŭn-fā th ‘ə-mə-bəl)

adj.

1. Difficult or impossible to understand; incomprehensible: unfathomable theories.

(This is hilarious. <ROFL> If we can’t laugh at ourselves who can we laugh at? I’ll be laughing at this for some time to come.)

Needless to say, I do actually want you to learn something while you are here. So…Although I have to lose an entire syllable, I am changing the title to Fathomable Training For Artistic Leaders and I still get to play off the oceanic word play theme.

It is closer to what I want this site to be… Who really wants to digest too much information that is going to be too big to actually apply anyway.

fath·om·a·ble, adjective— vb
 4.   to measure the depth of, esp with a sounding line; sound
 5.   to penetrate (a mystery, problem, etc); discover the meaning of

The lesson here: Never go to print, without editing, editing some more and editing again. Then re-edit it. An even better lesson is to never print anything.

“Michael Horwitz’s story is very much about seizing the opportunity when you get it and working hard.”

“Mike Pasciullo, the SVP of marketing, started at Marvel by answering a help wanted ad.”

“Matt Fraction started pitching things to Axel Alonso and Warren Simons for three years before he saw his first Marvel comic published.”

“Skottie Young was a waiter at Ed Dubevic’s. He always wanted to draw comics, but there wasn’t a map for how to get there. Young would draw pictures and illustrations for bands and the like, and one day he went to Wizard World Chicago when he was living there. CB stopped by where Skottie was sitting and dropped off his card–this was before CB was even at Marvel–and they became friends. For Skottie Young, the real trick is staying in, not breaking in. You break in, but then things sometimes fall through and there are a bunch of false starts, so you have to be persistent.”

“James Sokolowski always worked on the business/sales end, so even if you can’t write or draw there’s a place for you at a company like Marvel.”

“Humberto Ramos begins his story with the caveat that he’s Mexican. He says it’s hard to break into an industry that isn’t even in his country. Humberto came to Comic-Con and sat in lines waiting for editors to see his work. First editor he talked to was Tom Brevoort, who told him he wasn’t ready, but he had the talent, so go back home and keep working. Humberto came back to San Diego the next year, and asked then-Superman artist Jon Bogdanove to look at his work and he spent a decent time looking over his work. Afterwards, Bogdanove took Ramos and his friend down to the Milestone booth where Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan looked over his work and hired him on the spot.”

The bottom line to succeed in what you want to do: love what you do, do what you love, keep doing it.

There is no “map” to success because each person’s path to success is different. In fact, each person’s vision of success is different. This is not a “cookie cutter” world, and you are not a “cookie cutter” person. You are unique, your path will be unique too.

Remember. Success is only a perceived idea. If there is a top artist in a major company, making tens of thousands of dollars an issue,  but really wants to be a shrimp fisherman and was only thrust into comics by happenstance just to pay the bills… is this person any measure of success than someone who wants to be an artist and works daily on developing drawing skills because he/she loves to draw?

I can guarantee you, it is not a success for our shrimp fisherman wannabe. It may be to others vying to cross the fence, but not to him.

Building off THE WAITING post from yesterday…

The path to success is the journey itself. A lot of times we think that in the end we will get to the “treasure” at the end of the rainbow–The Goal–The End. When all along, we never realize that the we are traveling on a RAINBOW for crying out loud.

Success is in each step. Success is in the friends we make along the way. Success is seeing who we can help out along the way. Success is the small everyday actions. Success is made or lost every single day.

Let’s end this post to say a little about “LUCK.”

Some may think luck has a good deal to do with finally achieving their dream. I don’t really believe in “luck”, I like to think of it as “wonderful opportunistic availabilities”. It is good to make your own luck by being ready when opportunity presents itself, but your skills can only ever take you so far. If you rely only on yourself to get you where you want to go, you won’t get very far. In fact, you won’t get anywhere. The “SUCCESS SPARK” to really take your small-step successes to BIG-STEP successes are at the moment when two people can really connect. Each bringing something to the table that will further both people. Then, not only are you enjoying your success, but you are enjoying a new friend and watching him enjoy his success as well. WOW! What a great thought!

Can someone please explain to me this whole idea of “waiting?”

We know what this is. Waiting for our life to be better, waiting for that one person to call, waiting for the day when we will be a SUPERSTAR artist with adoring fans from all over the world.

We get all depressed if GOOD things DON’T happen. We say phrases like, “One day, things will turn around,” but they rarely do. It is as if we have been programmed to live a comatose life. You know how it happens. For fear of rejection, or lack of self confidence, you set things up in your life to be stable and secure, maybe have a wife, 2 kids, a dog, and a job. So you can’t get hurt in your “perfect safe zone”.

We get all depressed if BAD things DO happen. Life is going on in a pretty regular fashion, then your best friend is killed in a car wreck, your grandma gets cancer, your spouse leaves you for another person, or you lose your job. And fear of the unknown sets in.

We have to keep this in our head. There is nothing …. nothing… nothing… nothing… NOTHING… that should stop us from living life to our fullest expectation. Life is happening even now. Even in these really bad, depressing moments there is good moments happening–to us, for us, and all around us. Life is not all about us. It is our perception of the situation that has to change.

One of my favorite anonymous quotes is: “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s learning how to dance in the rain.”

Small rain causes things to grow. Torrential rain can get rid of the unnecessary things in life. Use this time for growth. We will almost never grow as quickly as we can during the bad times.

Today is the ONLY day we have.
Take action to make your life better TODAY. Be the person you want to be TODAY. Enjoy TODAY.
Don’t wait! C’MON, LET’S DANCE!

Think about it. Even the winner of a JOB, gets a salary cap, gets to be away from their family for most of their life, and gets to promote a company plan, plus you have someone tell you when you can come in and tell you when to leave. If this is you, and you love your job, more power to you. The gifts can be rather enticing from the Siren’s song–healthcare benefits which you get from any independent source, retirement which is not even likely any more, and company stock options which are as risky as the market.

Honestly, if you are in your perfect job, that you love and you are living out your passion daily, and they are taking care of you by paying an honest days pay for an honest days work doing something you love, there is nothing I will be able to say that will break you free. Why would you want to? They have provided enough false sense of security that will have you happily engaging their ideas for hopefully a long time to come. But if you haven’t lived that passionate life through your work, or gotten a perfect job, or you don’t have the skills to compete with the leaders in your industry, what can you do?

What is our innate reaction? Go back to school and get another career? Do you really want to go back to school, racking up an additional 15-30K in loans for the next 2 or 3 years that you may or may not even get with all the competition that is out there? People have paid thousands in school bills to get jobs that no longer exist. Or have downsized their businesses to nothing. Or the business just takes flight and leaves. What about you? Do you get through college and want to change fields not knowing what it is you want to do or be, or never use their degree because life gets in the way? What a waste of time, money, and resources! We don’t want to work for the next stage of our life like we worked the last stage. The education you received the first time landed you in a time consuming job that put you on a company walk, a company check, and promoted someone else’s ideas. To be a truly great society, we must stop this cycle.

There is a way out. Many are seeing it. And that is my hope. Believe in yourself. You will see it, too.

http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_portrev.shtml

If you can’t make it to the show, but still want to work, check out the Art Submission link above.

It seems that as much as we want to change things from our ordinary lives to be something bigger, better, and more extraordinary than we already are, we fail to understand a few of the key components of the human race that we can do nothing to change.

A few of these characteristics are :
1. We are who we are and we cannot be somebody else.
2. We are loved more than we possibly imagine just by being who we are.
3. We have an allotted time to do with as we choose.
4. Our time will run out.

It is vitally important that we know each of these things. And we really wrap our hearts around our purpose for living, our reason for creating art, and our legacy in which we want to fulfill before our time on this planet expires.

The intentions of this blog are to add incredible value into your life. As I connect with you, I want to inspire you to use every unique creative atom in you for the betterment of everyone in your sphere of influence in this existence of life we are in together.