What A Doughboy Knows That We Don’t

It’s the beginning of a new semester. And Bob is at it again. Each semester, Bob shows a video to his international students. It’s this one.  Behold the Doughboy effect “Does this make you hungry?” he asks them. They laugh nervously and answer, “No.” “Does this make you think of family or getting together […]

The “Purpose, Tribes, Stories, & The Squat Or Sit” Experience

Explores seismic shifts in organizational purpose, and integrated marketing and communications. Whole lot a shakin’ And, more importantly, how you can take advantage of them. Including an exercise in building an experience / story platform. Together, we’ll cover Messages Don’t Work Anymore From Hype to Help: Remaking Integrated Marketing Communications Stories Of IMC On The […]

The “What Will We Do With The Creative Brief?” Experience

It’s seldom creative. It’s never brief. And yet, it’s a creative brief Today’s rambling, uninspiring brief is a flaming bag of shit dropped on your team’s doorstep. They have no choice but to stomp it out. Learn how to reinvent the brief for an age of experiences and storysharing – not messaging. Together, we’ll cover […]

What The Critics Have To Say

A few reviews of the Art Of It experience for your reviewing pleasure Gordon has that rare mind for creative thinking. And Gordon’s presentations are inspiring. He guides his audience to a promised land of purpose-driven solutions and delivers beyond expectations. His quiet demeanor hides the passion he feels for great work. His soft voice […]

What’s an experience?

Drinking beer and watching ESPN. Chris Barbie and Don Kamentz found themselves sitting in a bar in Houston. Just chillin. Trying to recuperate from another 14-hour day running their start-up charter school. Wach ya’ lookin’ at On the screen in front of them, ESPN was covering National Signing Day. That’s the day high school football […]

How It Works

  Ideas for change start out small and fragile. But the more you talk about them, the more you share them, the more they start to take shape. But when you experience a different way of seeing things people can be inspired to transform them from good ideas into great ideas.   And the people […]

A Thought About Building

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Stories That Move The Movement

Real stories, narrative stories, are powerful. They connect people and forever change those people for the better. Great stories exist outside time. They live in people’s hearts. And they fuel their actions That’s why stories are the language of tribes. And as such, they hold the power to emotionally connect people. And to define and […]

How To Shape A Story

Every story has a shape. You can find it by plotting the emotional high points and low points that the story takes as it unfolds. Voila! When you’re done you’ll end up with the shape of that story. That’s what Kurt Vonnegut did to show that classic stories have common basic shapes. He used Cinderella […]