Tuesday, October 30, 2001

Oooooh. This is going to be fun! First, Angela hello! You can order a copy of this wonderful book by clicking on the book title, up there, to your left, top of screen. You should read Gonzo--it is an amazing business book. Have you read Cluetrain? Go to www.rageboy.com and read the stuff that has us all gabbing.

Andrew--hello to you too. I know. I know. Really. Maybe I'm just telling myself that it is helping because I have to write these petty little client deliverables to get a paycheck. But I don't think so. Last week I had to edit some articles from a, shall we say, important blue-chip client---maybe the bluest chip of them all if you get my drift. I didn't just correct the stupid stuff. I could have done that, billed a couple hours, and sent it back.

Instead I took what is in my business kind of a risk (hey, it's a boring life, but it's mine.) I tore them apart and gave them a whole new voice--post-gonzo-reading is different than what I would have sent them back before. I did more than make them make sense. I took out the corporate speak. I took out about 20 references to the client and turned these things around into something that would at least talk to customers at their level. They weren't pedantic corporate hoopla anymore. That's what I meant about the Gonzo mirror.

I'm not pretending this will change the world, but you know what, both of the client contacts emailed me back--they loved what I did. Sometimes it's not that companies don't want to get rid of the bullshit, it's that they've been standing in it so long they don't know there's fresh grass right next to them.

Bob the Builder - yes he can!

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