A Decade of Discourse: Our Best Blogs from the First 10 Years

A list of our top 10 best blogs over the last decade.

Everyone loves to count backwards from 10. The growing volume of the crowd. The anticipation. The promise of something unmissable at the end. And whether it’s a rocket launch or the clock ticking its way into a new year, hitting zero is always exhilarating.

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Happy National Book Lovers Day. From, The Flock.

Today, The Flock is celebrating National Book Lovers Day.

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At Black Sheep, activating people around things that matter looks different every day.

Make America Dinner Again

At Black Sheep, activating people around things that matter looks different every day. Sometimes we’re rallying big crowds for an event. Sometimes we’re championing our clients’ causes by counting impressions and reach. Lately, we’re sitting down for dinner with a few strangers in our space to talk politics.

If the idea of inviting a bunch of people you don’t know to dinner and immediately bringing up the last election sounds like a twisted nightmare to you, there are a couple of ladies you should meet.

In 2017, following a heated presidential election (you know the one), two women created Make America Dinner Again (MADA), exploring the idea that dinner and thoughtful conversation could bring people together… again.

You never step away from a challenge, and you approach life with a wild purpose. Your ideas?

NOW OPEN: Fall Marketing Internship

You never step away from a challenge, and you approach life with a wild purpose. Your ideas? Unexpected. Your perspective? Creatively unparalleled. If this sounds like you, you may be a Black Sheep, and we’re ready to meet you.

The Miami Vice AJ1. An MTO handcrafted with white and pink crocodile leather as well as turquoise and black python. Lined with Japanese plonge leather liner.  Inspired by the vibrancy of Miami.

@levis x @jumpman23 IV . I’ll be dropping these somewhere in Paris . You find em you keep em . Stay tuned ✌🏽

We live in a high culture of customization—our diets, hair color, movie recommendations, travel experiences.

Customize this

We’re hiring for an Administrative Concierge/Jack of All Trades/Task Master/Office Mom/General Getter of Things Done. And, hey, you can even help us pick your title.

Are you the match we’re missing?

2 billion impressions is great, changing the future with college bound students is better

First impressions matter, right?  So what happens after 2 BILLION impressions?

First impressions matter, right?  So what happens after 2 BILLION impressions?  We found out with our Michelle Obama’s #CollegeSigningDay partnership this year.

It’s Okay To Talk Derby – Hard Hitting PR Lessons from Houston Roller Derby

If you’re familiar with roller derby from the 70s, you probably remember gigantic wooden-banked tracks, hardcore body slams and over-choreographed rail flips. Today, though, the game is more of a sport than a spectacle. After reemerging as an “old game, new sport” in 2003, contemporary roller derby has made considerable efforts to rebrand itself. And we have to say – these ladies have been on a serious roll.

The Houston Roller Derby Championship Bout is September 21 and we’ll be there, front and center. Sure, there’s always the risk of becoming a landing pad for a projectile derby girl, but who are we to shy away from anything?

Whether you’re wearing skates and taking names or trying to revitalize a PR campaign, we think you should listen up and take a few hard-hitting PR pointers from our own derby gal, intern Katie Thomson – or Betty Watchett. This gal GOES HARD.

This Ain’t Your Mama’s Roller Derby
Just as the game has reemerged into a more youthful, athletic and empowering sport, a good PR campaign should show a little rebellion, too. Textbook methods insist that you stick it to the old techniques and follow history’s classic marketing formulas. DON’T. It’s okay to try new moves by jumping the apex, especially if you can wow your audience AND stick the landing. Do something new and fresh. We’re not suggesting you completely reinvent the wheel, but try getting your “roll” on in a different fashion.

Great Jammers Always Get ‘Lead’
In roller derby, the first jammer (point scorer) to get out of the pack is awarded a special privilege called “lead jammer,” which allows her to stop the jam at any time. If she gets lead, she retains control.

If you get YOUR lead in a PR campaign, you’ll be racking up the points, too. The key to success is breaking out of the pack to get ahead of your competition. Take risks and do things no one else is doing by finding those holes. It may feel scary, but it really gives you the upper hand as a leader in the game.

Play the Star
The objective of roller derby is to block the opposing jammer – who wears a helmet covered with stars – out of bounds, while trying to balance getting your jammer past the other team’s blockers. All the while, you’re dodging hits and trying to keep up with everyone on the track. While it may seem intimidating, sticking to your guns is something every PR pro can get behind. Set your goals from the beginning and stay laser-focused. Do everything you can in your power to block out interfering details or issues. Multitasking and tangential thoughts can slow you down. Always push ahead and you’ll maintain your lead to be the big winner.

Roller derby shows us that you can reinvigorate your PR campaigns with new energy. Taking a step towards a new image might be risky (and some might always latch on to your old brand), but the outcome of a fresh perspective can inspire a new identity and appeal to a completely different market. Roller derby never remarketed itself as a completely new concept — it just promoted itself as a youthful, energized community and became a culture more fans could be a part of. Take some risks, step out in front of the competition and stay focused on what you want to convey.

If you find yourself sitting in the front row at Houston Roller Derby’s big game next Saturday, see the action up close and take some notes on rebranding. Remember, it’s okay to talk derby every once in a while – just prepare to cover that beer if a skater lands in your lap!

It’s Okay To Talk Derby – Hard-Hitting PR Lessons from Houston Roller Derby

Hung Up on a Rung: Ladders, inference, assumptions and YOU!

If you’re anything like me, your mind moves a mile a minute, and not always in a good way.

If you’re anything like me, your mind moves a mile a minute, and not always in a good way. You know that saying about assumptions? The one about you, and me, and a less pleasant term for a donkey? Yeah. Been there—painful. 

“We’re all going to have big losses in our lives, maybe a job or a career, relationships, love our youth.

The Beautiful Awful

“We’re all going to have big losses in our lives, maybe a job or a career, relationships, love our youth. We’re going to lose our health, people we love. These kinds of losses are out of our control. They’re unpredictable, and they bring us to our knees. And so I say, let them. Fall to your knees. Be humbled. Let go of trying to change it or even wanting it to be different. It just is.”

When you give the right old man an Instagram, he’s going to want to post—a lot.

When You Give an Old Man an Instagram

When you give the right old man an Instagram, he’s going to want to post—a lot. And when he wants to post, he’s going to need content. And when he needs content, a masterpiece emerges and the universal cuteness meter is blown to smithereens.

Locally based Brazilian graphic designer Renata Senna had a vision for our chalk wall as soon as we contacted her. Merging feminism with gorgeous illustrations and graphics, Senna envisioned a mighty image of Supergirl combined with a strong statement. Between us gals (And guys. And everyone.), this is one of our favorite Blank Slate pieces. Ever. It’s simple but packs a powerful message: The future is female.

Blank Slate — To Femininity And Beyond!

Locally based Brazilian graphic designer Renata Senna had a vision for our chalk wall as soon as we contacted her.

To Femininity and Beyond!

Wholesome Humor and Weird Twitter’s Jonny Sun

Internet culture is alive and real and moving and sometimes it scares me.

Internet culture is alive and real and moving and sometimes it scares me. But if I’m honest, I spend most of the time that I’m breathing on Twitter. I’ll never apologize. It’s part of me now. I sit down, fish my slightly-broken iPhone out of my pocket and get lost in the depths of Weird Twitter, basking in the never-ending bad memes that somehow leave a gross taste in my mouth and refresh me simultaneously.

Why an Out of Office Retreat is Good For Camaraderie

He doesn’t need an introduction, but we’re going to give him one anyway: The Convoy Group’s Mark Austin is the man to talk to when you want to understand the current state of the Houston music scene and how important Record Store Day is to independent record stores.

Record Store Day: Q&A with Mark Austin

Record Store Day: The Remix

Pardon Our [Old] French, But Charity is a Four-Letter Word

The word charity conjures up Dickensian ideas of people struggling. Small street urchins in newsboy caps or little red-headed orphans singing their heart out. It’s not our favorite word. Not because the sentiment isn’t spot on—it is. The idea of charity is based on an Old French word, charité, meaning “benevolence for the poor.” It’s a beautiful thought: To be charitable is to be kind. To be kind is to care for your neighbors. And to care for your neighbors? There’s no more Houstonian trait than that. But the word “charity” itself comes with a lot of baggage. Like TSA, we’re here to open up that luggage, unpack it and repack it with a deeper meaning.

If you aren’t already taking a sabbatical from the airline-based atrocities making their way across the internet, never fear.

#NuggsForCarter: The Art Of The Meal

If you aren’t already taking a sabbatical from the airline-based atrocities making their way across the internet, never fear. Once again, we’ve been blessed with a worthy cause: nuggets.

Pepsi, Listen to the New Generation. Yours truly, Black Sheep.

We live in an incredibly raw time. Emotions are high, and there are a lot of social causes and movements catching people’s attention. Because of that, many brands are trying to figure out ways to participate. While some, like REI, thrive when it comes to speaking about issues like feminism, others are struggling to find that line between marketing and meaning.

When Life Gives You Lemonade

So, Grammy Awards. While there was a long list of inspirational moments, two stuck out the most to me. For those of you who watched last night, let this serve as a chance to re-experience two big moments. And for those of you who haven’t, check it out because they gave me a new perspective on the work we do every day.

If you self-identify as a member of “Weird Twitter,” or even have a sense of what it is, you’re probably not too fond of the description—yet it’s probably the most realistic explanation of the phenomena.

An Aliebn Confuesed Abot Humamn Lamguage

This year we resolve to be feverishly focused on activating people around things that matter.

2017: Finding the internet’s backbone.

This year we resolve to be feverishly focused on activating people around things that matter. More on that later, but today we want to talk about how the internet landscape needs to be different in 2017—starting with social media and how free we let speech be.

Finally feeds are becoming less inundated with Millennial-focused strategy articles trying to pin down a generation taking up 20 percent of the population.

Gen Z: The Change You Wish to See

Finally feeds are becoming less inundated with Millennial-focused strategy articles trying to pin down a generation taking up 20 percent of the population. News flash—it can’t be done that easily—and frankly, if you’re still trying to figure out Millennials, you’ve got another thing coming: Gen Z is here, and like the younger sibling they are, they’re watching.

CareAll enabled our communities to make this season a memorable one for the kids and teens of Boys & Girls Harbor, and we’ve finally had a moment to stop and reflect on giving and our own families this holiday season.

Black Sheep Gift Guide

CareAll enabled our communities to make this season a memorable one for the kids and teens of Boys & Girls Harbor, and we’ve finally had a moment to stop and reflect on giving and our own families this holiday season.

Black Sheep Quarterly Jams List

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Creatures of HABIT: A Black Sheep Experiment (Part II)

This blog post is a part of a series—an experiment of sorts. You see, I’m reading a book about forming better habits, and I invited the entire agency to participate.

This blog post is a part of aseries—an experiment of sorts. You see, I’m reading a book about forming better habits, and I invited the entire agency to participate. I also invited YOU to play along—and it’s not too late. It’s never too late.This is the second post of the series. Read the first one here.

“WOKE UP AND FELT THE VIBE.” —Kanye West

GIF US YOUR BEST SHOT: A Challenge To Be The Next Black Sheep

So, you think you want to be a Black Sheep? Well, we can’t say that we blame you.

So, you think you want to be a Black Sheep? Well, we can’t say that we blame you. This is a pretty great place to work. We work hard, we play hard and we’ve built a culture that’s like no other you’ll find.

Built on mud and created from gumption, heart and a can-do spirit, Houston was born 180 years ago TODAY.

Happy Birthday to HOU: H-Town Turns 180!

Built on mud and created from gumption, heart and a can-do spirit, Houston was born 180 years ago TODAY. (Not that it looks a day over 179…) Think about that: one hundred and eighty years. It seems like such a long, long time, but actually it’s a pretty short interval when you think about what we’ve accomplished as a city. 

Our National Park Service has a birthday today, and it’s a BIG ONE.

NPS: You Make 100 Look Good!

Our National Park Service has a birthday today, and it’s a BIG ONE. 

That’s why I started writing this letter. To you. To us.

I have to be honest—even though I’m currently inside of my house, (which I am lucky to have), and even though I’m currently using my kitchen counter as a desk, (and am grateful to even be working, alongside my team, to make sure everyone is cared for)—the air isn’t tranquil. Not right now. 

And maybe it’s because all of us are “hunkering down”—whatever that means now. (In Scottish 1720, the word ‘hunkering’ meant to crouch or to crawl). A lot of us feel like that. Like we’re moving awkwardly forward, with the discomfort of so many unknowns. 

We’re confused. We’re trying to host conference calls against a chorus of frustrated babies. We’re working with family members and friends in the same rooms or we’re separated by miles from the people who matter most to us. We check the news. Worry. We call our parents. Worry. We send an email to a partner. Worry. 

There’s an invisible viral thing that has happened to us and it’s changed how we work and live. It’s thrown away the thin curtain that once tenderly separated our professional lives from our private ones.

Minutes and hours and days of it. We’re not used to this amount of rapid change. 

Black Sheep is an agency that’s been driven by making an impact for the last 11 years. Every project we take on is focused on “activating people around things that matter.” 

But to activate people, you have to plan. You have to strategically forecast the next few months and even years to build excitement, create momentum, organize volunteers, share powerful stories from community voices, and all of the other small and large details that make it all come together to create a sea of change. 

At Black Sheep, our work often helps clients shift from a reactive to a proactive seat—and it gives them a great deal of power to have that control. But right now, we can’t be proactive, and we’re not exactly reactive either. We’re just in that middle zone—that crouching zone. We’re just active.

We’re taking the steps that feel good right now. For the next few minutes. Hours. Days. Months.

We have to depend on each other in ways we weren't expecting. We have to ask for help when we need it. We have to give more than we usually do—and stretch our resources while also protecting ourselves.

So for the next few months, we’re moving forward with this mindset—the opposite of worry is action. 

So here’s to the “right-now-action plans” we know you're working on. The company statements. The team checklists. The instant work-from-home plans. The real-time decisions in the middle of so many unknowns.  

Wednesday, March 25, I hosted Activating in the Unknown—a digital gathering over Zoom where thinkers, industry leaders and perfect strangers joined me for a short lunchtime chat. We spoke about messaging updates, events, company culture and more. And, y'all. It felt great.                                                                                                                                                                  

We plan on doing another round soon. You can see a recording of our first conversation here and sign up to stay informed on future talks.

Impact-driven businesses are always short on the most important resources: time, money, people. Now, they’re going to be suffering in those categories even more. Let’s continue a conversation about what we can all do to help meet our collective needs.

Because that’s what we can do (right now) while we take care of our clients, our family and friends.

An invitation in these strange times.

There are times when you just have to get something—anything—down on paper to figure it out. When you need to have a moment to just take all of the chaos and think through it as clearly as possible, line by line.

The opposite of worry is action. We have to depend on each other in ways we weren't expecting. We have to ask for help when we need it. We're living in the action.

The Black Sheep blog is turning up the volume on community engagement, social media strategy, Houston happenings and what it means to lead a purpose-driven life.

The Black Sheep Agency | Social impact and nonprofit blog

We like to type as much as we like to listen.

We're not shy.

We're not shy.

Dear You (Dear Us)

Dear You (Dear Us)

A Decade of Discourse: Our Best Blogs from the First 10 Years

Happy National Book Lovers Day. From, The Flock.

Make America Dinner Again

NOW OPEN: Fall Marketing Internship

Customize this

Are you the match we’re missing?

2 billion impressions is great, changing the future with college bound students is better

It’s Okay To Talk Derby – Hard-Hitting PR Lessons from Houston Roller Derby

Hung Up on a Rung: Ladders, inference, assumptions and YOU!

The Beautiful Awful

When You Give an Old Man an Instagram

To Femininity and Beyond!

Wholesome Humor and Weird Twitter’s Jonny Sun

Why an Out of Office Retreat is Good For Camaraderie

Record Store Day: Q&A with Mark Austin

Record Store Day: The Remix

Pardon Our [Old] French, But Charity is a Four-Letter Word

#NuggsForCarter: The Art Of The Meal

Pepsi, Listen to the New Generation. Yours truly, Black Sheep.

When Life Gives You Lemonade

An Aliebn Confuesed Abot Humamn Lamguage

2017: Finding the internet’s backbone.

Gen Z: The Change You Wish to See

Black Sheep Gift Guide

Black Sheep Quarterly Jams List

Creatures of HABIT: A Black Sheep Experiment (Part II)

Black Sheep Quarterly Jams List

GIF US YOUR BEST SHOT: A Challenge To Be The Next Black Sheep

Happy Birthday to HOU: H-Town Turns 180!

NPS: You Make 100 Look Good!