A few years ago, fellow Corante alumn Lois Kelly asked a question on her Foghound blog:
“If James Lipton, host of “Inside the Actor’s Studio” BRAVO television program, were to interview a marketing or business person , here’s how he’d probably adapt his famous 10 questions that he asks at the end of the show. How would you answer them?”
It occurs to me that although this blog has been around since around 2005, I still don’t know all of you all that well. In the interest of getting to know each other better, I thought the first business day of 2011 might be a good time to dust off Lois’ idea and use Mr. Lipton’s format to get us started. I will go first, for good measure:
What is your favorite marketing/business word?
Love.
What is your least favorite marketing/business word?
It’s a tossup between “no” and “utilize.”
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally about marketing/business?
Turning people on to ideas, products or causes you know they will absolutely love.
What turns you off about marketing/business?
How often people’s lack of professional integrity, absence of empathy and dishonesty tend to be rewarded.
What’s your favorite curse word when you see really bad marketing?
What the f..ck?!
What sound or noise do marketers/business people make that you love?
That electrically-charged moment of silence when the light bulb blinks on inside their heads.
What sound or noise do marketers/business people make that you hate?
The sound of bullshit.
What profession other than marketing should marketers attempt – to become better at marketing?
That’s a tough one. Product design. Customer service. Combat Photography. Just about anything that teaches someone to understand people and connect with the world.
What profession should marketers never try?
Accounting.
If marketing heaven exists, what would God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
“Ah. You again. I’ve been looking forward to this.”
Your turn: Either answer in the comments section or post your Q/A on your blog. (Don’t forget to link back so I will see your answers.) Looking forward to learning a little more about you. If you tweet a link to your replies, fell free to use the #TBBQA tag.
Cheers,
Olivier
Brand Building and Online Marketing Blog 
How fun! How very “King and I.”
1. Fave word: reciprocity
2. Least: leverage
3. Turn on: being the conduit; intuiting what the client means and translating it accurately.
4. Turn offs: unapologetic hacks. Purveyors of ‘lick and a promise’, slipshod bullsh!t (and the fact that they can sleep at night). Blerg.
5. Fave cuss word inspired by sh!t work: Clusterf*ck.
6. Favorite client sound: The Gasp.
7. Hated client sound: The Marge Simpson Throat Clear/Hmmmmm….
8. Marketer cross pollination skill: Copywriting. Distilling a thought from synapse to writing (accurately) demands reflection and awareness.
9. Marketer never attempt: I can’t improve upon accounting. That’s true.
10. Pearly Gates greeting: “You’re ‘new and improved.’ Welcome.”
Well done. 🙂
“Leverage” is the worst of the worst.
I’ll bite. Will post later on my blog and publish tomorrow. Fun!
Here we go: Entertaining and Informing Olivier…Mayhaps. (a little Q & A w/ @thebrandbuilder) http://bit.ly/fs6BZQ #TBBQA
I love a good Q&A session!
1. Fav Mtg Word: Natural
2. Least Fav: FREE
3. Turn on: Helping small businesses achieve their goals, succeed at their vision and give them creative motivation.
4. Turn offs: SPAM, BS, aggressive sales people
5. Fav Curse Word: Probably Holy Sh*T or F*ck
6. Fav Client Sound: Actually no sound, just widening of the eyes and an open mouth in awe
7. Hate Client Sound: More like phrase… “I have a limited budget and don’t want to spend a lot”
8. Become better at: Customer relations, being authentic, relationship building, simple and honest marketing and messages, the TRUTH
9. Never attempt: Would agree ACCOUNTING
10. Greeting at Gates: “You were honest and ethical, congrats!”
Cool. 🙂
Olivier – inspired post that has me thinking of how I’d answe.
As ‘love’ is a key word, please be sure to read ‘Heroic Leadership’ by Chris Lowney. It’s a phenom book, but most importantly, emphasizes the importance of love in leadership and business. And bonus, it’s really well written.
Cheers!
Added to the list. You might enjoy this then: https://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/the-psychology-of-failure-part-2-leadership/
Awesome post!
Here are my answers:
What is your favorite marketing/business word?
Sharing.
What is your least favorite marketing/business word?
Synergy.
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally about marketing/business?
Playing around with new ideas/concepts and connecting people with them.
What turns you off about marketing/business?
How close minded business people are.
What’s your favorite curse word when you see really bad marketing/business?
Pendejos!
What sound or noise do marketers/business people make that you love?
The sound the click makes when the gears in their mind turns to “Yes!”
What sound or noise do marketers/business people make that you hate?
The sound of the door slamming when they decide “No!”
What profession other than marketing/business should people attempt – to become better at it?
Teaching. They should try teaching someone.
What profession should marketers never try?
Anything that requires a success rate of more than 5%.
If marketing/business heaven exists, what would God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
Ah, I’ve been expecting you.
Thanks Olivier!
“Anything that requires a success rate of more than 5%.” Nice! 😀
Loved this idea for the first biz day of 2011.
1. Favorite word: What’s Next?
2. Least: Repurpose
3. Turn on: Putting something into action that a short while ago did not exist
4. Turn offs: People who don’t even try to be better than the accepted norm.
5. Favorite cuss word inspired by sh!t work: ‘What the S#!t?’ (similar but different at the same time 😉
6. Favorite business sound: Anything that starts off with ‘How about we try this….’ LOVE hearing ideas exchanged
7. Hated business sound: The tapping of keys on a mobile device during a discussion.
8. Marketer cross pollination skill: Customer service, you need to hear what your people are actually praising you about and what they have issues with.
9. Marketer never attempt: Astrophysicist (b/c I would have said accounting)
10. Pearly Gates greeting: ““Well you sure went your own way to get here..”
I like the customer service thing. Spot on.
I’m not one for memes, but this is a great one Olivier. I’m going to post this to my blog tonight with a credit link to here.
James Lipton has a great program. He always does good interviews and has a smooth way of calmly extracting information from his subjects.
James Lipton should be a CIA interrogator. I think his method might work better than waterboarding.
What a novel idea. I’ll bite (though I’m not *technically* in marketing).
What is your favorite marketing/business word?
– citizenship
What is your least favorite marketing/business word?
– LBS (location-based bullshit)
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally about marketing/business?
– building high performance machines
– inspiring a sense of global citizenship
– building high performance lives
What turns you off about marketing/business?
– the phrase, “business exists to make a profit”
– lowest common denominator bullshit pandering to ignorant masses
What’s your favorite curse word when you see really bad marketing?
– generally doesn’t bother me, so I guess I’ll just go with ‘f-cktards.”
What sound or noise do marketers/business people make that you love?
– when they give credit where it is due
What sound or noise do marketers/business people make that you hate?
– What is the sound of AdSense/affiliate SEO shilling?
– See also: car dealership advertising on the radio (OMG.)
What profession other than marketing should marketers attempt – to become better at marketing?
– Front line, Level 1 tech support for any product/service they’re pushing… for a foreign market.
What profession should marketers never try?
– Is there any they haven’t?
If marketing heaven exists, what would God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
– ‘Welcome to Heaven. We’ve sent all the commercials, billboards, advertisements, and insulting product placements to Hell, where those poor bastards are spending eternity closing pop-up windows, tripping over Intellitext, and bumping into those annoying, automated Flash people who just appear out of nowhere to talk on their way to check into Hell on Foursquare.’
Outstanding. That just gave me a good laugh.
What is your favorite marketing/business word? Leverage 😉 I haven’t read the other comments before coming up with this one. Honestly!!
What is your least favorite marketing/business word? High-level.
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally about marketing/business? Out-of-sync with everything Marketing 2.0: An excellent cinema or TV commercial.
What turns you off about marketing/business? What people believe marketing is: Crappy cinema or TV commercials.
What’s your favorite curse word when you see really bad marketing? I don’t swear.
What sound or noise do marketers/business people make that you love? A drill-n-bass like staccato.
What sound or noise do marketers/business people make that you hate? And there’s even more …
What profession other than marketing should marketers attempt – to become better at marketing? Psychology.
What profession should marketers never try? Rocket science.
If marketing heaven exists, what would God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? “What the hell are YOU doing here!?”
Psychology. Nice. Very true.
Hey Olivier, A great and fun post there. Here’s what I had to say.. Check it out at my blog http://vasifabbas.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/getting-to-know-you-better/
Going to post, going to link back here. Thanks – I don’t think any of your responses were surprising, but maybe folks will learn a little about me… naah, who am I kidding. 🙂
Happy 2011.
Happy 2011 to you.
Love this shit! My two penneth …
What is your favorite marketing/business word?
Why?
What is your least favorite marketing/business word?
I can’t make that decision.
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally about marketing/business?
Being given a challenge by people with completely open minds, perhaps even ready to take a risk.
What turns you off about marketing/business?
Similar to yours my friend, lack of integrity and dishonesty is rife. Sadly.
What’s your favorite curse word when you see really bad marketing?
Twats.
What sound or noise do marketers/business people make that you love?
That sound when someone just ‘gets it’
What sound or noise do marketers/business people make that you hate?
The sound of trying too hard.
What profession other than marketing should marketers attempt – to become better at marketing?
Psychologist, or perhaps researchers (proper qualitative ones)
What profession should marketers never try?
Social Media Guru/Maven/Expert/Ninja etc (because they should know better)
If marketing heaven exists, what would God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
I think you might be lost my dear.
“The sound of trying too hard.” I like that.
Cheers. 🙂
This was a fun idea, and I love some of the collective responses. My blog post/answers will be up tomorrow morning.
I blogged my questionnaire. Glad to have found you today! : )