The Lady Gaga Guide to Forming Emotional Connections

You know that feeling when you jump out of a building? Nope.

You know that feeling when you jump out of a building? Nope. I haven’t either. Sheep rarely jump off stuff—that’s why you see them up so high in the mountains, surefooted and attached to the ground at the hooves.

Condensed

Find Your Values, Let Them Lead You To Action

Values have become a checklist item. Behind “Mission” and “Vision,” they’re the next thing to tackle before you startup, rebrand or launch a new culture handbook. But they really shouldn’t be. Real values are baked-in to your DNA. They’re like eye color—natural, striking and permanent. You can throw on contacts, but the truth remains behind the lens.

ONE BILLION IMPRESSIONS. One billion. It’s an incredible amount.

ONE BILLION IMPRESSIONS

ONE BILLION IMPRESSIONS. One billion. It’s an incredible amount. It means that we’re on to something. That the right eyeballs are finding their way to Better Make Room’s message. That we’re breaking through to those we serve. Our journey to a billion has been wildly important for education around America, and to us as an agency.

A few years ago, I read the book Brilliance by Marcus Sakey.

Pattern Recognition

A few years ago, I read the book Brilliance by Marcus Sakey. I don’t want to spoil it for you by giving away the plot, but something stuck with me—enough to read this book again for inspiration—was how the characters in this novel have special abilities. Realistic ones. One character could visualize the movement and patterns in crowds, giving her the ability to seamlessly weave through people for quick escapes. Another man was blessed with infallible emotion-recognition skills, making him a human lie detector. They had super powers but not necessarily supernatural ones, as Jess helped me summarize. (Thanks, Jess!)

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.

Regular

I grew up in a Southern family that loved its sayings.

Don’t Just Scratch the Surface

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.

My inspiration is based on The Millennial Podcast by Megan Tan, creator and host. I strongly feel that we’re all lucky that our jobs are an everyday exercise in empathy, and podcasts like these provide such a valuable way to take in an experience you may have never thought about.

The Millennial Podcast

My inspiration is based on The Millennial Podcast by Megan Tan, creator and host. I strongly feel that we’re all lucky that our jobs are an everyday exercise in empathy, and podcasts like these provide such a valuable way to take in an experience you may have never thought about.

In 2016, iconic Houston institution Bering Omega merged with Houston Area Community Services (HACS) to form one big super-org focused on community medical care.

Creating a 360-Degree Brand

In 2016, iconic Houston institution Bering Omega merged with Houston Area Community Services (HACS) to form one big super-org focused on community medical care. The resulting powerhouse was namedAvenue 360 Health & Wellness—“Avenue” for the simple, friendly pathway to care and “360” for the huge variety of services offered. Avenue 360 provides everything from medical and behavioral health to dental services, help with housing and even more specialized support services.

“Do blue butterflies eat pieces of the sky?” 

“Can girls be robots?” 

“Why don’t worms have faces?”

How Does Life Live?

“Do blue butterflies eat pieces of the sky?” 

We all know the David and Goliath Bible school story: Little guy wins out big over presumed-to-win giant.

The Advantages of Disadvantages

We all know the David and Goliath Bible school story: Little guy wins out big over presumed-to-win giant. Yada yada yada—upset and unforeseen victories ensue. In Malcom Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, Gladwell turns the idea that sometimes the smaller guy wins or the underdog comes out on top by flipping what we presume to be disadvantages to actual ADVANTAGES.

Who doesn’t want to start their week off with some philosophizing?

To Shock and To Awe

Who doesn’t want to start their week off with some philosophizing? Currently, I’m in the middle of slowly powering throughSeneca’s “On The Happy Life,” and a specific piece stuck out to me as relevant for our work—and a testament to the challenge of shocking and awing.

Women across the world are making their mark.

International Womens Day | Ladies First

Women across the world are making their mark. Protesting in styles that fit their niche and voice, empowering themselves and their community. Some chose to protest and politely remove themselves from the workforce, allies wore red in solidarity and some (like us) decided to celebrate.

A COLLABORATIVE FILM BY GNARLY BAY + FOREST WOODWARD + FRIENDS

Special thanks to Doug Woodward, Brendan Leonard, Skip Armstrong, David Marx, Jeff Scholl, Elliot Ross, Jess Lowe, Howl Collective, Story & Heart

Edit:  Jordan Ingram + Gnarly Bay
Additional Audio Mixing:  Joshua Svare

Save the Important Places.  Protect the Grand Canyon and other wild rivers.  Please visit www.americanrivers.org/grandcanyon to learn more.

Supported by American Rivers / Chaco Footwear / NRS / Goal Zero / Marmoset Music / Story & Heart

MUSIC
01. Blind and Unwise (Instrumental) by Gregory and the Hawk
02. Honey Jars by Bryan John Appleby
03. Snowy Crescendo (Instrumental) by Bell Plaines
04. For a Film (Instrumental) by Bell Plaines
05. Awareness (Instrumental) by Lee Brooks

THE IMPORTANT PLACES.

Storytelling: The Important Places

My heart is on fire. I am surrounded by and continually following behind these incredible preservers and creators who have a knack for threading the important scenes through storytelling—a skill I want to keep growing forever.

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.

Combined Arms: A New Brand About Moving Forward Together

If you know Black Sheep, you know that we like to believe in things—one of those things is the power of a logo. Another is the power of veterans in our community.

Go ahead. Take a minute to panic because you already feel behind and overwhelmed.

Planning for Now Isn’t Good Enough

Go ahead. Take a minute to panic because you already feel behind and overwhelmed. Now take a deep breath because Benjamin P. Hardy is here to help.

Most branding advice assumes one organization with one leader making the final call. Coalitions, networks with local chapters and groups of partners chasing a shared goal don't work that way. They decide together, priorities compete and the smallest partners often have the fewest people to carry the brand once it exists.

We've been working through these dynamics with the Houston Cultural Districts and the institutions and artists around them, building a shared brand for the city's arts scene. Recently, Natalie Wells (Director of Strategy), Jo Skillman (Creative Director) and Ren Mitchell (Director of Growth) walked through that process at the Houston Media Conference in a luncheon keynote called "Undefinable On Purpose." 

Here's what we've learned that applies to any organization whose brand depends on partners it doesn't control.


Who needs to be heard before a shared brand can take shape?

A shared brand needs input from everyone who will be asked to use it, champion it or be represented by it. Those groups overlap less than most leaders expect. Funders and civic partners tend to focus on visibility and economic impact. Practitioners care about credibility and fair representation. Community members want to know whether the story sounds like them.

We layer our research so each group is heard where they'll be most candid:

1:1 interviews draw out honest perspectives from decision-makers.

Focus groups show how people negotiate their differences in real time.

Sitting in on partner board meetings, when we're invited, adds context no interview can.

This phase doubles as early community building. People are far more likely to adopt a brand they helped shape.

Try this: Before any creative work starts, list every group that will use, fund or be represented by the brand. Then decide how you'll hear from each one.


How should research tensions inform brand strategy?

A tension is a place where two things people care about pull in different directions, and both sides are usually true. As Natalie put it, tensions show where people are most invested, which makes them some of the most useful findings research can turn up.

In our work with the Houston Cultural District, nearly every strength came with a risk. Greater visibility for neighborhood arts could accelerate displacement in communities already under pressure. Recognition tends to concentrate around large institutions, leaving midsize organizations and mid-career artists out of the story. And many of the stakeholders who want a stronger collective story are the same ones who resist being summarized.

Most complex nonprofits carry their own versions: headquarters versus chapters, legacy programs versus emerging ones, a national message versus local identity. Naming them explicitly gives the creative team something real to design around. It also moves the hard conversations to the start of the process, where they cost the least.

Try this: Write your biggest tensions into the research findings as plain either/or statements. Then decide together how the brand will handle each one before design begins.


How can a brand reflect real complexity without losing clarity?

A brand can hold complexity only when it commits to a clear point of view. When research keeps concluding that a community is everything at once, creative teams stall and strategy drifts toward language that feels safe and says very little. Jo named this risk directly in the creative brief:

"We've all heard it said: Houston is a little bit of a lot of things. Diverse, a tapestry rich with culture. However, trying to be everything to everyone will water down our visual and written creative. The brand directions we propose must contain a strong point of view on who we are and why. It's difficult but necessary."

The shared brands that hold up best work as a frame. They hold many stories at once while making a clear claim about what connects them. That gives participants room to see themselves in the brand without diluting the whole.

Try this: Test every brand direction with one question: could another city or coalition say this about itself? If the answer is yes, it isn't specific enough yet.


How do you keep a coalition aligned through creative decisions?

Alignment depends on agreeing to the goal in writing before anyone sees creative. We view the creative brief as the document that nails everything to the wall. Keep it short and candid, and use it to surface likely friction before hours go into design.

The brief earns its keep later, when feedback drifts toward personal preference. The group doesn't need to agree on the shade of blue. It needs to agree the work is reaching the larger goal. With many decision-makers, holding that line keeps reviews productive and protects the timeline.

When stakeholders are creatives themselves, start with a session reviewing a wide range of visual references. The value is in the reasoning behind each reaction, which gives the group a shared vocabulary for every review that follows.

Try this: Open every creative review by rereading the brief's goal out loud. Ask reviewers to tie each piece of feedback back to it.


How does a shared brand stay recognizable across very different organizations?

Consistency in a distributed brand comes from a small set of elements that never change. A system that has to work on a neighborhood mural and a museum banner needs a recognizable thread, whether a color, a mark, a pattern or a phrase. Protect those elements and let everything around them flex to fit the partner and the setting. 

Adoption also depends on capacity. Many coalition partners have no designer or communications staff, so participation has to be easy. Toolkits, templates, co-branding guidance and ready-to-post assets lower the barrier and help smaller organizations stay visible within the brand.

Try this: Choose the few elements partners can never change. Then build a starter kit that a partner with no designer could use in an afternoon.


When should rollout planning begin for a multi-stakeholder brand?

Rollout planning should begin while the brand is still in development. A shared brand gains value only through use, so partner onboarding, distribution and digital activation need to be designed alongside the identity. Each partner should see a role that matches its capacity, from a large institution running a full campaign to a small organization sharing a single post. Planning early also surfaces practical questions, especially around funding, while there's still time to solve them.

Try this: Ask each partner now what they could realistically do in the first month after launch, and build the plan and budget around those answers.


What makes a shared brand worth the effort?

A brand built across many organizations takes more listening and more deliberate facilitation than one built for a single institution. The return is a story more people feel ownership of and will carry into their own work.

If you're leading a coalition, network or multi-partner effort and the brand keeps stalling, we can help. 

Coalitions and multi-partner networks need a brand everyone can carry. Lessons from building a shared Houston arts brand with the Houston Cultural Districts, with steps to try.

How to Build One Brand for Many Organizations | Black Sheep

What building a shared Houston arts brand with the Houston Cultural Districts taught us about building one brand for many organizations

Coalitions don’t get one decision-maker or one story. Here’s what we learned building a shared arts brand with the Houston Cultural Districts.

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.

How Can a Coalition Share One Brand?