Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

Some of us need positive reinforcement, others only understand punishment. I only understand positive reinforcement. Luckily I learned this when I was just 3 ½. I started kindergarten in the middle of 1988. From the very beginning,  I was a handful. I liked to talk, and had a very active imagination. The rest of the story from today is as told to me by my father since it is one of his favorite stories…“Every day Kirsten’s teacher, Mrs. Gitlin, had a pond of water drawn on the board. In that pond were fishing poles for each student, and fish in the water with each students name on it. Above the fishing poles was a table and then a frying pan. Every time you did something wrong, you moved up the ranking, from the water, to the pole, to the table and to the frying pan…and by gum, you were in the fishing pan every day! Well, the problem was, you thought it was a prize…(apparently I thought I was winning every day??). So, we [my parents] came in and talked with the teacher and explained that you [Kirsten] needed positive, not negative reinforcement. Once she changed how she rewarded you – giving you stars when you did things right instead of punishing if you did them wrong – you became a stellar student and she never had problems with you again”. This lesson has stuck with me forever and I believe is one of the most important things I remember when working with clients. Some people need positive reinforcement, some negative (reminder emails for getting their things done vs congratulatory notes when they are done). Some people learn by listening, some by doing (sitting in workshops or hands on training). The overall point is that not everyone operates in the same manner, and the sooner we learn that, the more effectively we will work with each other.

In the marketing world, 1988 marked a turning point for U.S. advertising overseas. Prior to 1988, Soviet TV had never allowed any American advertisements, but on May 21st, 1988, Pepsi debut it’s commercial to over 150 million Soviet TV viewers. What was even more important was that Pepsi translated their logo into the Cyrillic alphabet so that the Russians would be able to understand the commercial and the logo. This was a turning point because after the opening of the Soviet Union to American commercials, many companies began researching changing their logos into more multi-cultural forms, and planned on how they would release their products into new markets (remember the disaster of the Chevy Nova in Hispanic cultures?). It is important now, more than ever, to remember that with channels like youtube, your commercials have basically no limit to the people (and the countries) that will view them.

Related posts:

1. Creativity through the years – 1989
2. Creativity through the years – 1987
3. Creativity through the years – 1984

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

In 1987, I decided it was my time to start getting noticed and shocking everyone who met me. I hadn’t quite learned how to read on my own, but I certainly was able to convince people who visited our home.

How did I do it? At bed time, my dad would read to me. It was always the same books, either Why The Bear Has A Short Tail or The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse . Since he read them almost every night, pretty soon I had started memorizing the words. Which meant if it had been a long night, and dad wanted to skip a page? I would catch him…and start reciting it back to him. (I told you I was precocious!) Anyway, pretty soon, I could “read” the books and recite the words at the exact moment and on the right pages.

Anyway, one of my favorite things to do when we had guests over was to sit on the floor of my room, with one of the books open and “read” it. I thought it was like a comedy routine, and I loved watching the faces of the people as they watched a 1 year old flawlessly read through a book. It was the first (but definitely not the last) time that I realized how much I enjoyed captivating an audience.

In the tech world, one of my favorite tools I currently use was first discussed (*hint: It’s icon is a blue box and it starts with photo and ends with shop*) by the Knoll Brothers. Photoshop is now one of the most popular photo editing software and is a staple in my everyday arsenal. I couldn’t imagine my business without it…so thank you Knoll’s, you two are amazing!

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1. Creativity through the years – 1986 (Two-word tuesday #21)
2. Creativity through the years – 1985
3. Creativity through the years – 1989

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Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

My two-words: preciously precocious

Media two-words: created

Related posts:

1. Creativity through the years – 1984
2. Creativity through the years – 1985
3. Creativity through the years – 1987

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

1985 was an active year for me, and one of many firsts. Of course, being rather type A from the moment I was born, I wanted to do everything early. This meant I started talking (and apparently never stopped) at 8 months, and was walking by 10 months. According to my parents, neither of these were a surprise, and the fact that once I started walking and talking they could barely contain me? Well, no surprise either.

In the world of marketing – 1985 marked the year that Coca-Cola released New Coke and almost ruined their entire brand in one fell swoop. Luckily, they realized their mistake in just 79 days and were able to maintain some form of dignity after pulling new coke from the shelves.

1985… the year I learned to walk & talk, and Coca-Cola learned how to listen.

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1. Creativity through the years – 1984
2. Finding creativity when you least expect it
3. Creativity through the years – 1987

I turn 25 this year. (December 4th to be exact). That means I have had almost 25 years of creative ideas, creative moments and creative ramblings. And after reading Brad’s blogs walking you through the past 30 years of his life, I got another creative idea: Creativity through the years.

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world…starting with 1984!

My creative moment: Well, Seeing as I was born at the end of it, there wasn’t much to experience. But, I still found a little way to be creative: I was born at 12:13am on December 4th. My mother’s birthday? 12/13. Something little…but creativity doesn’t always have to be intense.

Creativity in technology: Born just 10 1/2 months before me, the first MacIntosh computer became available on January 24th, 1984. What is even more interesting is that their market share didn’t really grab hold until almost 14 years later, in 1998. It was their creativity (as much as I don’t like apple) that enabled them to become such a powerhouse…although it did take awhile.

On Monday, I’ll be covering 1985

*And don’t forget to register for the Business Strategy Workshop soon! Spaces are filling up quickly…*

Related posts:

1. Creativity through the years – 1985
2. Creativity through the years – 1989
3. Creativity through the years – 1986 (Two-word tuesday #21)

Quick story first: my parents have a poodle (Bella), who fell in love with a tortoise (Douglas) that friends of theirs had as a pet. So my parents friend gave Douglas to Bella as a pet. (yes, the poodle has a pet tortoise). Anyway, my parents left in their RV last week to go to Arizona for 2 weeks of relaxation, site-seeing and golfing. While Bella could go with them, Douglas couldn’t, so I offered to “tortoise sit”. I learned 2 things about tortoises really quickly: they are scared of absolutely every moment, and they like to hide in stuff.

Onto the point of this post: natural motivation.

I had a bit of a crazy day today, working on a couple client projects. I was tired, a little crabby and I needed a little brain break. So, I wandered outside to see where Douglas had disappeared to. When I found him, he was wandering along our patio. I sat down near him, and for the first time since I got him last week, I really looked at him. When he walks, is head bobs in an interesting fashion …I could almost hear him whistling a little tune and see his smile as he meandered along. His legs and arms (or limbs?) are covered in little spikes, but they aren’t sharp, it is more to pull him along. He kind of drags them, rather than lifting them, because lifting them would be heavy with the shell. Then there was his shell. It is beautiful, smooth, colorful and really unique. After staring at him for what seemed like 20 minutes, I felt really relaxed, my thoughts had slowed and I was smiling. Douglas was my natural motivation today. Just watching him participate in life in his own way was what I needed for that extra boost of energy and refocus to finish out my day.

Just before I came back inside, I snapped a picture of him. Not thinking much of it, I opened the picture in photoshop and played with a few different filters – and was pleasantly surprised when the image above came out.

Where can you find a little natural motivation?

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1. If I’m going to motivate, I should probably do it myself…

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