A. James Editing, Inc.

There was an epic party last night to celebrate the incredible 38-year advertising career of Frank Grady, King at Grady Britton (no really, that’s his official title).


The wine flowed, the food sated and the family, friends and colleagues of King Frank were in high spirits.


That part was excellent.


But the most excellent part took place before I even got to the party.


Living within two miles of the Grady Britton office, I decided to ride my bike to the party.


If you’ve ever been to this industrial area, you’ll know that bike racks are in short supply. So it was when I arrived.


Luckily though, just as I had paused to consider whether or not I should lock my bike to a Stop sign, another cyclist rode up, hopped his bike over the curb and rode in the direction of the party.


I called after him:


“Where are you going to put your bike?”


“Are you going to the party?” he asked.


“Yeah!”


“Oh, then we can just bring them up. I’ve been here before and it’s totally cool.”


Sweet.


He held the door for me and we entered the building.


As we crested the stairs, there was a server at the top who offered us wine and/or beer.


Awkwardly, but with grace, we both took a glass of red wine while simultaneously navigating our bikes into the elevator.


“Cheers,” we said.


This nice man showed me where to park my bike and he introduced himself as Ryan.


I spoke with him again later in the evening and he told me he worked for eROI. I already knew a few people who worked for eROI so this was exciting for me to meet another one.


He mentioned what his title was at eROI, but I didn’t catch it over the music and the chatter.


I left the party close to 8pm and when I got home, I went to the eROI website to read a little bit more about him.

Ryan Buchanan, CEO
Ryan was named by Oregon Business magazine as one of the ’50 who fix it, move it, build it, change it, and get it done right.’

Yep.


That was the guy.


Like I said: the most excellent part.

As a consumer of cat videos, I’m not entirely convinced that this idea would never work.


On a more serious note though, I think this video speaks to the dangers of following the trends of the moment that may not have much staying power.


It’s certainly a hilarious video though.


Trombone cat! Hah! Priceless. Enjoy.

(Thank you, Peter Bowerman, for sharing this!)

I had the great pleasure of attending the Portland Creative Conference on September 17th, and was truly blown away by all the incredible speakers: Rob Legato, Brynn Bardacke, Naomi Pomeroy, and Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt.


But by far my favorite, and I would successfully argue the favorite of the entire audience, was creative giant, Jelly Helm.


You know who Jelly is, right? Remember those huge billboards with men, women, and children holding axes and chainsaws all over Portland? Well, that was Jelly’s work.


He was the fill-in speaker at the Conference. His sweet self-deprecatory humor was endlessly charming, which was only enhanced by the fact that he was talking about a very unconventional, but extremely ubiquitous topic that everyone in the room felt the truth of, though they probably have very little opportunity to give it credence in their daily lives, and certainly not in their professional ones: love.


He said that “No meaningful activity on the planet happens without love being at the heart of it.” He shared his prediction of a love-based economy with us and a concept coined by Tom Walters called creative tension: when you’re living in your full softness of being a human being.


Now how many people do you think can get up in front of hundreds of business professionals and talk about a love-based economy and living in your full softness and leave the stage to wild applause? (There may have even been a standing ovation.) Maybe more people than I think, but I doubt it.


Other personal influences he invoked were Parker Palmer, Joseph Campbell (of course) and Buckminster Fuller.


I won’t give his deep story outline because you really should experience if for yourself, but I will give you the three takeaway questions he left us:


1) What do I love? (Or what does your client love?)
2) What do I see that no one else sees?
3) What do I do?


At their very core, the questions ask you to know thyself and in so doing, to know your clients as well.


If you can get your hands on a recorded presentation or have the opportunity to see him speak…you should.

I’ve got exciting news!


Yours truly is featured in the monthly e-zine of esteemed freelance copywriter, Peter Bowerman. You know, the guy whose book is permanently featured down the right side of my website? Yeah, that Peter Bowerman.


Whoo hoo! I’m in the big-time, baby!


Here’s a link to the goods.

It’s in section four, DESSERT: Sweet Success Stories and Tips: OR FLCW Sets Her Writing Sights on Sportswear Giant and Scores!


I’d like to thank the Academy blah blah blah, my mom blah blah blah and wouldn’t it be great to have a little world peace around here?

I sent an email to my list of contacts about two weeks ago and got a very mixed response. Some responded with “OMG, that’s a great idea! Why have I never thought of that?” while others were like, “Yeah right, I bet you over-did it.”


(I’ll try not to take the latter personally.)


I’m referring to this email about how to get your “boring” business documents to stand out and get you the results you want.


The email was specifically about an RFP (Request For Proposal) I helped a financial advisor create.


He was bidding on a five million dollar 401(k) plan and, knowing he’d be up against some bigger, badder companies, he called me in to help him dress-up his RFP.


He wanted something that would set him apart and above all his competitors. His ideas were extremely innovative and he knew it.


He kept saying, “They’re not gonna see me coming.”


Now, this dressing-up doesn’t involve a lot of flashy crap that’s more distracting than eye-catching.


It involves simple, clean, value-added formatting and copy writing.


In my email, I originally offered to share a copy of the content I created with anyone who wanted to see it.


My client emailed me afterwards and told me he’d prefer if I didn’t do that because he didn’t want to be competing against his own RFP model.


Fair enough, I said.


So instead, I’ve created an outline for creating a successful, dressed-up RFP.


(Please note that I had nothing to do with the technical stuff about the actual 401(k) plan. All that information came from the 401(k) insurance providers. I just worked on the intro and the conclusion.)


Here is the RFP Outline as a PDF.


I would love to guarantee that all your previously boring documents will meet with wild success after implementing this strategy, but I cannot. Getting a good copywriter onboard will only be to the good though.


All I can guarantee is that you’ll be a peacock among geese.




(Note: I have nothing against geese. They’re just not as pretty as peacocks, okay? We may not be able to agree on how to spend taxpayer dollars, but I think we can all agree on that.)