Our Communication

Over the past several weeks I have been getting together with key groups on campus and brainstorming, "What are our key messages?", "Why do people come here?", "What do we want to accomplish in their lives?". It has been a lot of fun, and as I have been out on this tour I'm hit by the power of a marketing leader getting out and firing others up about marketing. In the past, I have probably ebbed and flowed in terms of getting out and keeping the marketing fire burning, but this exercise has shown me that when you talk about it, people can get excited.

One of the great things about having a blog is that you can shamelessly promote friends and relatives, and an article from an athletic training journal written by my brother seemed to hit a lot of great points along these lines. The article refers to another book, but one of the communicaiton assumptions that it states well is that we assume the person we are talking to, "cares about the request and will act accordingly to fulfill the request."

So many things in marketing rely on other people that I hope I don't ever make the mistake of assuming those things. As a communicator it is more than my job to communicate "stuff", I have to package it in such a way that it inspires people to get involved and do their best work.

My deadline for delivering my initial research and ideas is two weeks away, and I'm more excited about this job and this field than I have been in a long time because I can see the vision.

The funny visionary quote of the week comes from Steven Wright who says, "I'm a peripheral visionary. I can see into the future, just way off to the side."

I hope that you are excited about what you're doing today, because it could be life changing for a student sitting somewhere asking the eternal question, "What do I want to do with my life."