A Bigger Voice

Thanksgiving Day, 2008

Photo by clarity

Yes, it's Turkey Day in the U.S. Or if you are like my vegetarian neighbors, it's Tofurkey Day (tofu in the shape fo a turkey.)

Between watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and baking a few things to take to the afternoon gathering of siblings, parents, nieces and nephews, and assorted friends, I'm grateful for this time to get quiet and reflect.

It's been just over a year since the idea of A Bigger Voice came to me, in a daydream, while driving. Along the way, I've been blessed with "an embarrassment of riches." Thanks to all of you who have expressed interest in this work, been a guinea pig, challenged my thinking (you know who you are), and made your voices heard so that this isn't just my dream, but our dream.

One of the voices that I've been resisting hearing is the one that says, "'What the hell is this ABV thing, anyway? I just don't get it." I'm particularly grateful for this voice, because it provides the opening for a conversation that moves the ball forward. The project manager part of me hates the mess and confusion that's just been revealed and the personal coach part of me loves the deeper dialogue that will follow.

As you gather around the table today, whether it's with friends or family or strangers, I hope that you'll have good conversation that takes you someplace you didn't expect.

Facebook: From Timewaster to Relationship-Builder

To some, Facebook is rightly blocked by workplaces, consisting only of zombies, vampires and compromising pictures.

Photo by Per Ola Wiberg

But Facebook has become one of my most important sources of news, as well as an important way to keep in touch with friends, family and workmates.

Here's why:

1. Facebook gives me a personalised news feed. Building a community is as much about listening as talking, but there's a lot of information out there. Facebook acts as a kind of filter, as my friends (actual and virtual) around the world update their status, giving me a unique view of how life's going for them personally, as well as their take on world events (recent elections in the USA and New Zealand being a great example). You can also put a link in your status update, linking to a blog post you've written, one you're reading, a news story, or a video.
2. Facebook lets me customise the kind of information I receive. If I just want the bare facts, I can choose to only view status updates from my friend. If I want a more visual, immersive experience I can choose to see photos and videos that my friends post. It's a tremendously efficient way to stay in touch with a lot of people.
3. Facebook has groups I can join, and makes it easy for me to start a group. There are groups on just about any subject, from the trivial (fans of a TV show) to the humourous ("I secretly want to punch slow-walking people in the back of the head") to businesses, social movements or causes you feel passionate about. You can also start a "cause" on Facebook, which is similar to a group and also allows you to collect donations.
4. (This is my favourite part) Facebook acts as a focal point for all my other social networking activity (or my ecosystem). I can feed my blog posts automatically into my Facebook feed using the Blogcast Facebook App. I can automatically send my Twitter updates (that's a whole other blog post) to Facebook using the Twitter Facebook App.
5. (I don't use this personally, but you may want to!) You can set up a cause on Facebook to raise awareness - and even funds - for any 501(c) nonprofit organisation in the US or Canada.

If you're new to social media, Facebook is a great way to find your feet. You can keep your involvement minimal, or you can explore the many, many, many ways of enhancing the Facebook experience. It's a microcosm of all the tools out there, tools for building individual relationships as well as building A Bigger Voice for yourself.

Communities of Circumstance

Photo by Joe Shlabotnik

Often when we use the word “community” these days, we’re thinking about a community of affinity, a community of people who have significant values in common. In A Bigger Voice we often refer to this kind of community as a “community of kindred spirits.”

But when we’re talking about changing something big in the world, another kind of community may also come into play. This is what I’d call a community of circumstance, or a community of common stake.

For example, I live on an inner-city block in Minneapolis. The people on my street are extremely diverse in many ways—in class, in race and ethnicity, in language, in political views. I don’t spend time with any of my neighbors—I like them fine, but we’re not close friends and we don’t share much about our lives. We have different ideas about what would make things better on our block. At a recent public meeting, it became clear that we all had different reactions to the barrier the city council and the police put up at the end of our street this summer. I have a “Peace Now” sign in my yard; my neighbor has a “Liberate Iraq” sign on his porch. We are not a community of affinity.

Photo by Sanjay Kumar

However, the people on my block are bound together by where we live. Our actions on the block affect one another. We have a common stake in our neighborhood. Unless we choose to move, we have to work it out together. In this case, our common circumstance is geographical. In other cases, it may be professional, or connected to a chosen or unchosen life circumstance (a child with cancer, an ethnic heritage, an abiding interest in agriculture or architecture).

When you want to create a big change in the world, you gather energy and ideas and comfort from a community of kindred spirits—from people who are excited by the same ideas or hold the same deep values, who see the world the same way. But to actually bring the change into being, you are likely to have to work with people you don’t agree with or whose values are different from yours. Finding the connection—the common stake—is crucial to getting things done. On my block, the common stake is obvious. On a bigger scale, it may not be quite so clear.

Who are your kindred spirits? And who else will you have to work with to get the job done?

Creating Community Through Blogs, Part 3

Some tips I gathered from the Thin Air Summit:

Photo by Gavin Andrew Stewart

1. A first step to creating a community is to be a part of a community. It's easier to join a conversation than to start one. Participate by leaving comments on other blogs. Rather than being an island by focusing solely on your own blog, exercise your voice in the larger conversation of the blogosphere. (My thanks to Amy Gahran and Dave Taylor for driving home this point. I've been particularly bad on this.)
2. With transparency comes credibility. Declare your biases up front. Chris Menning, provides a nice commentary on this point, in reporting on a presentation,  Traditional vs. Social Media: New Ways to Report What We See on Day 2 of the conference.
3. Creating a community is a journey.  I learned a new term from one of the presenters, Mark Linder, who has been podcasting for over four years: podfading. It refers to what happens to lots of blogs and podcasts--excitement and lots of activity at the beginning, only to be followed by a fading away of posts.  I'm guilty of this with my efforts to build a community around whole brain thinking and boundary crossing.  Make sure that whatever means you use to build your community (e.g., blogging, in-person meetings, regular teleconferences), you pick something that's sustainable.
4. Your community is wherever they are, not where you are.

   

   Photo by Kimba

   As you build your eco-system, add "outposts" to your blog where kindred spirits can find you (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Plurk.)  Online presence means making it easy for others to find you and engage in a conversation, whether it's on your site or someone else's.
5. Corollary to Tip #4: Meet your audience where they are, not just literally, but figuratively. After Dave Taylor's keynote, a blogger in the audience commented that, "My readers wonder about these buttons--StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit." The person was asking what to do with readers who don't understand how to use technology found on blogs, like social bookmarking tools. Dave's response: Pick one or two of these tools and explain them well. You don't need three versions of a social bookmarking tool. You just need one that is well-understood.  I love this quote from Dave: "How accessible are you making your voice?"

This last point is probably best directed to me, and the rest of the A Bigger Voice team. During the Thin Air Summit, I noticed that it's easy to get comfortable in a bubble of early adopters who "get you." Likewise, after working for months with consultants who understand the concepts around A Bigger Voice, it's seductive to believe that everyone speaks the same language, including readers of this blog.

Call me on it, would you please? Let me know when my voice is no longer accessible, when I've gone off the deep end, fascinated by the new concept or idea but not very useful to you, the reader. 

Networking Equals Making Friends

Networking is one of the tools we use to build community at A Bigger Voice. I'm pleased to introduce Ellen Ingraham as our networking expert. Ellen comes to us after a successful career in building extraordinary sales teams in the pharmaceutical industry and in building businesses as an independent marketing consultant.

I met Ellen when she responded to my email, forwarded from a friend of a friend, asking if anyone knew of a social media guru for the A Bigger Voice team. She didn't fit the bill. Nevertheless, she emailed me, a complete stranger. Her response included detailed feedback on my website with comments from a few of her friends, as well as an offer to brainstorm on how to find the social media person I was looking for.

One of the things I've learned from Ellen is that successful networking starts with an attitude of service and abundance. She's one of those rare individuals who naturally thinks about how she can be of service to others and then gives from a place of abundance. And for her, it all starts with making connections.

The best experts are the ones who practice their craft innately and that's what Ellen does with networking. Enjoy getting to know Ellen in her first post.

--Carol Ross

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One of my passions is meeting new people, exchanging ideas, finding common ground, seeing if there is any way that I can help others reach their goals. This is what networking is to me—networking is making friends.

When most people hear the word networking, they think of taking a pile of business cards to a meeting where the sole purpose is to give people your cards and get as many cards as you can. Then you take all these business cards home, enter them into some kind of database, and contact all these people hoping to get business from them.

Once after a networking meeting, I got an email from one of the people who had taken my card with a form letter attached. The file was called “Post-Networking Meeting Letter Number One.” The sender had thoughtfully filled my name into the greeting. First I laughed out loud… and then I cried.

One of our colleagues in A Bigger Voice told me that she hated networking. I asked her how she had done it in the past. She said that when she worked for a large law firm, one of the areas on which they were evaluated was networking; this consisted of attending a networking event, gathering as many cards as possible, and reporting back on the number of cards obtained and the number of people she met from whom the firm could potentially get business. It was the only part of her job at which she failed miserably.

Is it any wonder, with scenarios like these, that the word “networking” evokes dread in so many people?

Photo by Shashi Bellamkonda

Instead of focusing on how many business cards you collect, or how many people you could potentially do business with, ask yourself these questions:

• Did you meet one person that you enjoyed?
• Did you have a meaningful conversation with her?
• Can you imagine staying in touch with her?
• Might you, sometime in the future, find a way to connect her to someone else who could help her?

If so, you win!

Starting small, networking is making one-to-one connections—making new friends. Thinking big, networking can change the way the world operates—if we become more conscious of how we connect to other people every day, and if we pay attention to connecting people to one another.

Networking is not a straight line; it’s a circle, or a web of connections. In Simon’s words, it is one part of the “eco-system of building community.” When we start intentionally connecting people (or introducing our friends to one another) to further what’s important to each of us, we all contribute to the vision of making the world a better place. Everyone finds a bigger voice. Everyone wins.

What’s your definition of networking?

Interview on Wisdom Entrepreneurs

Photo by Larry Nelson of W3W3.com

For those of you who learn best by listening, I was recently interviewed about wisdom entrepreneurs by W3W3, Internet talk radio, billed as "Colorado's Voice of the Technology Community."  Click here for more info on the interview and here to jump right into listening. 

A quick backstory: Terry Morreale is the interviewer and a one-time colleague of mine, when I was an engineer at U S WEST, over a decade ago.  I was thirtysomething and Terry was just out of college. Even though we live in the same town, we lost touch with each other. We reconnected this year, when a friend and former colleague of mine from Lucent Technologies sent me the link for an interview she had done for W3W3.  As I was listening for my friend's voice, I was surprised to hear not just one, but two familiar voices.

I contacted Terry, invited her to coffee and we caught up on each other's lives. While I left engineering several years ago, Terry is still an engineer. And since our days of being cubicle neighbors, she's developed a passion for helping women in technology. Thus, her current role as an interviewer for the Women in Information Technology series of W3W3. Terry was intrigued when I told her about A Bigger Voice and how we are using technology as a tool for building a community. She suggested we do an interview.

The moral of the story for those interested in A Bigger Voice: It's a small world and networking opportunities are always present, if you keep your eyes open.

My thanks to Terry and the co-founder of W3W3, Larry Nelson, for helping to spread the word about A Bigger Voice and wisdom entrepreneurs.

Jeremiah Owyang's Keynote at Thin Air Summit

It's one thing to read someone's blog over time. It's another thing to see them speak in person.

Jeremiah Owyang gave the keynote yesterday on the second (and last) day of the Thin Air Summit,
with a talk titled, "The Future of Media....in the Social Era."

When I heard about the conference last month, it was the fact that Jeremiah was speaking that caught my attention. I've been reading his blog since January and it's become one of my top resources for understanding social media, where it's headed, and the role it can play in building a community. Key points from his talk:

• Allow content to take many forms. It's no longer enough to post something on a website. You've got to provide other distribution channels for your stuff to be found, where your audience is, instead of expecting them to come to you. Example: A blog posting is automatically fed to my Facebook account and then becomes a tweet (a posting of 140 characters or less, using the Twitter micro-blogging service). With each successive form, users can add their own commentary, thereby modifying your original intent. I may have posted about my vacation to Maui and someone links to it to talk about how the middle class has become more affluent. 
• Provide content in bite-sized chunks. Jeremiah talked about long-form and short-form and media snacking. Digital immigrants are used to reading newspapers and research reports. Digital natives are used to texting and scanning RSS feeds. Attention span, even for the over 30 crowd, has gone way down while information overload is a permanent condition. When I asked about the dangers of too much media snacking, Jeremiah replied that we might miss what's really important. In-depth analysis goes by the wayside. Speed and volume can't make up for good thinking.
• If information is power, media is currency. The world used to be about broadcast--television, radio--where one centralized body decided what the masses would hear. Think of the the top down, command and control hierarchy of our major corporations up until the last 10 years. Now think about the world today, where anybody can create an online video, upload it to a free site like YouTube, link to it, and modify it by adding in their own content. And then have it go viral.  This is the bottom-up change scenario that is becoming more possible and more probable. There is a shift in power from the top of the heap to the bottom of the food chain.

For people who love to see data to understand broad conclusions (like me), check out slides 47 and 49 of Jeremiah's presentation. Fascinating stuff with lots of implications.

What this means for creating a bigger voice:

• With short attention spans, you don't just need bite-sized chunks in the Crystallize phase. You need a clear message--what your wisdom is, what's the stunning result you want to create, how your life story connects with your passion.
• If you are attracting kindred spirits who are digital natives, you'll need to show up in a variety of places online. As time goes on, more of anyone's audience will be digital natives.
• Dream big, because bottom-up change is becoming more and more possible. One individual can have more impact than a thousand could a hundred years ago.

Besides Jeremiah's depth of expertise and ability to synthesize large amounts of input on the spot (he's an analyst for Forrester on social computing, after all), I was struck by two things during his presentation:

• He uses both sides of the brain, the creative right brain and the analytical left brain, in presenting ideas. A whole-brain thinker after my own heart. (I later found out by re-reading his bio that he was a jazz performance major in college--a boundary crosser in addition to being a whole brain thinker.) Throughout the presentation, Jeremiah used metaphors (jello, shish ka bob, and currency) and stories to drive home his points and then backed it up with data. A quick scan of his slides will give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

• He leads by example in building a community. Communities have power and wisdom. Two examples:
  • Jeremiah opened the talk by holding a controller to advance his slide presentation in one hand and a cell phone receiving Twitter messages in the other hand.  He acknowledged that the real power is not in the slide controller, but in the cell phone. Why? Through Twitter, audience members can now give real-time feedback on what they are hearing in a presentation and have a parallel, digital conversation, delivered in a web browser or via a mobile device. In a tech-savvy crowd, conference speakers can get the thumbs down very quickly and see their audience literally disappear. 
  • Jeremiah made a point of asking for the audience's experiences, in response to the main messages of his presentation (see slides titled "Community Examples.") With a crowd of social media early adopters, he knew this community had much to offer up with their own anecdotes. Community-builders know that they are the catalyst for conversation, but they are not the conversation itself. The more of an expert you are, the harder it is to open the space for others to join in, which makes Jeremiah's invitation for input all the more remarkable. (In a similar, but slightly different vein, Dave Taylor gave an example in his keynote, showing a photo of a sign with the words, "Don't think" painted on it. Underneath, someone else had written, "about her." A nice riff off of a serious message.)

How does this relate to having a bigger voice? If you are serious about communicating your wisdom, your cause, your passion, don't relegate it to one side of your brain. Crystallize using both sides. It's a whole lot more effective. And when you are ready to build community, you've got to walk your talk. Your attitude about what the crowd knows and your respect for the power at the bottom will make all the difference in how quickly a community will coalesce around your ideas.

My thanks to the co-organizers of Thin Air Summit, Goldie Katsu and Kit Seeborg for putting on a terrific conference. I'll be back next year.

Dave Taylor's Keynote at Thin Air Summit

Dave Taylor gave the keynote at the opening of the Thin Air Summit. And what an opening!

He's a pioneer in the use of the Internet, going back to the '80s. With that experience comes a wise perspective. I found Dave's keynote to be smart, compassionate, and best of all, a much needed viewpoint about how technology is impacting us as a society and a culture. You don't get that from the average geek.

Some key points from his talk, "Finding a Voice: The Evolution of Personal Media Through History":

• All of us are publishers. Dave asked the room how many were bloggers, podcasters, vloggers (video podcasters), on Twitter, on Facebook. Lots of hands raised, which you would expect in this kind of crowd. The point is that there are multiple avenues for getting your point of view out in the world. This is one of the underpinnings of A Bigger Voice--you don't need to go through gatekeepers (e.g., publishers, programmers for radio or television shows) to have a bigger voice in the world.
• We are story-tellers. Dave talked about how human beings have the desire to tell stories. His presentation was a great example of this, telling us about graffiti from 79AD in Pompeii and bloggers jailed in oppressive regimes, to illustrate his points about the drive and dangers of having a voice. Stories stick. Stories capture our imagination. It's why A Bigger Voice emphasizes telling your story of why you are passionate about your cause, how you've come to do the work that you doing.
• Each of us represents more people with similar ideas. We not only have the ability to have a voice, we can influence others as well. I loved this point from Dave as it goes to the core of a principle from A Bigger Voice: One individual can start a community.
• The human desire for expression is strong. People are willing to risk being jailed, tortured, and killed to be heard.  Citing examples like Anne Frank, Thomas Paine and places where freedom of speech is non-existent, Dave made the case for why so many of us are lucky to have open disagreement and heated discussions, publicly.
• Divergent voices are the sign of a healthy system. Yes! Yes! and Yes!  It's the secret to what A Bigger Voice calls a "vibrant community." Corollary point: One person starts the conversation and then someone else riffs off of it. You can't control this, nor do you want to. Any blogger who has written a provocative post and seen comments come pouring in knows this, in spades.
  Dave summed this up nicely:
  • More Voices = Less Control
  • Less Voices = Death of Democracy
• Everyone's a media channel. We are the new citizen journalist. This goes to points made in the Long Tail. And the idea that bottom-up change is possible, now more than ever.
• With power comes responsibility. Think before talking. I think often at the root of flaming, talking without thinking about the ramifications, and just silly stuff is self-righteousness. It's why the personal development part of this journey is so important. We need to be in service to something other than our ego.

I'm usually much more measured in blogging about my experiences--waiting a few days after I've had a chance to digest and process. And I think I'm getting into the spirit of social media--which is about connecting to many and sharing in real time.

Jeremiah Owyang will give a keynote this morning, in less than an hour. I'll try to blog about what I learn from his talk soon....

Anchor and Twist: Defining a Wisdom Entrepreneur

In talking with others about the concept of A Bigger Voice, it's been trial and error in finding the right words, to communicate clearly and concisely.  This is important. Without crystallization of your message, of your wisdom, of the stunning result you are trying to create, and the story behind why you are doing this work now, it will be hard to attract a community of kindred spirits. All you'll get are a bunch of blank looks. (Believe me, I've had my share.)

How many fuzzy great ideas have you heard in your lifetime? Even taking out the rhetoric of this election year, you've probably heard lots of people talk about wanting to do good in the world but without distinguishing what they want to do differently or why they are choosing to focus their efforts in a specific direction or a clear picture on the desired outcome. It then becomes motherhood and apple pie--easy to agree with but nothing to compel you into action.

Back to my trial and error. After many attempts, I noticed that when I used the term "wisdom entrepreneur," people resonated with and remembered it. In other words, the term stuck. And given curiosity on the listener's part, I had a chance to tell more of my story and make some distinctions.

I recently took a stab at defining the term "wisdom entrepreneur" for a Wikipedia article. Turns out that it's too early in the maturity of the term. To be included as an article requires the use of "reliable secondary sources" and lacking that, Wikipedia considers that you are submitting "original research." A big no-no in the world of Wikipedia.

Independent of creating a submission for a Wikipedia article, trying to define a concept that is made up turned out to be a useful exercise. It forced me to crystallize my message. Here's my definition for wisdom entrepreneur:

Wisdom Entrepreneur: An innovator who uses insight gained from life experiences to create social good and enduring value in the marketplace. Traditional entrepreneurs build organizations to develop business ideas that lead to profitability, with social good as a secondary concern. Wisdom entrepreneurs build communities to develop wisdom that leads to social good, with profitability a secondary concern. Like all entrepreneurs, wisdom entrepreneurs aim to implement an idea that will outlast them.

I was delighted when I ran across a Fast Company magazine article, Anchor and Twist, by Dan Heath and Chip Heath. (These are the guys who wrote the best-selling book, Made to Stick.) The article validates an approach that I intuitively used in defining wisdom entrepreneur: describe something new and unknown by comparing and contrasting to something old and known. In the words of the Heath brothers, "anchor in what people already know" and then create "a good innovation story [that] couples an anchor with a twist."

What does the Anchor and Twist look like for your bigger voice?  How can you use this concept to attract your tribe?

From Braves World to Buffalo Nation: Catching up with Chris Wendel

I recently had the opportunity to catch up with Chris Wendel, one of our A Bigger Voice pilot clients. Chris and his brother Tim are the sports fans and history buffs behind the blog Buffalo Nation.  Their new book, Buffalo, Home of the Braves will hit the shelves in January. The book chronicles the fast rise, overlooked players, and mismanaged final years of the Buffalo Braves, the National Basketball Association franchise that existed from 1970-78 before leaving Buffalo to become the L.A. Clippers.

The ABV Team worked with Chris and Tim from May through August as they prepared for the launch of their book.  Now, two months after the pilot, Chris sat down to chat with me about the impact A Bigger Voice had on their thinking about their book and their own bigger voice. Here are some highlights from our conversation.

Bill: What did you hope to accomplish though A Bigger Voice?

Chris: Our goal in working with A Bigger Voice was to get help in how to get the word out about the Braves book. But in working with the A Bigger Voice team to sharpen our story and message and to identify our audience, you helped us realize the broader significance of the Braves story and that our book might have a broader audience than we had originally thought.

In what way?

When we came to A Bigger Voice, we saw the Braves book as a niche book for Buffalo sports enthusiasts, but we’ve had our eyes opened to the broader scope of our story, and to the possible broader audience that the book might appeal to. There are parallels between what has happened to the Braves and what was happening in Western New York in the 70’s. The mid to late 70’s was a high water mark for Buffalo and Western New York, with Buffalo being a major industrial center with three major sports teams.

Then with the closing of Bethlehem Steel and the end of the industrial age, we entered a transition period for Western New York; the Braves leaving town is symbolic of that time. So we realized that the book has a broader story that might appeal to folks in Western New York who had been around for a long time and who relate to Buffalo and Western New York in a deeper way.

In the short run, our goal is still to generate excitement about the Braves story and the book. But we now see the opportunity for longer term community building: to grow a community beyond the Braves for people who care about Buffalo sports and Buffalo and Western New York more generally, to build on the solid values, connections, identity and pride in the area.

It was working through our story with the A Bigger Voice team that helped us get there.

How else did A Bigger Voice help?

I’ve been in marketing for years, but I didn’t realize how much the rules had changed and how important community building can be to getting our message out and connecting with people who care. Marketing used to be all about pushing your message out, but having an online presence is really important for getting in touch with people who care about the same things you do outside of your local community.

But it’s not just about an online community. Because our audience is somewhat older and may not be on the computer all the time, we need to connect with them directly too. For example, I recently had an opportunity to go to a fundraising event for the Lockport “Y” outside of Buffalo. The “Tipoff Dinner” had three basketball coaches from Buffalo speaking. There I got to meet the community up close and personal. Thanks to my Dad's help, I was able to set up a small table at the event with postcards and posters with book pages from Chapter One.

From a demographic perspective this was definitely the right group: mostly male, many over 40, with an intense interest in basketball. There was a core group that was on fire with the book concept. They could recount particular games, players, and circumstances thirty years later. Some were season ticket holders. One actually worked on press row for the Braves. They really still want to talk about this! There was even one guy who liked the concept so well that that we are talking about ways that he can help spread the word about the book. Now, I can start to see the community and the power it can have.

So what are you doing differently to build your community?

So far, we changed our blog from one called Brave’s World, which strictly focused on the Braves, to one called Buffalo Nation, which offers commentary and stories about Western New York. We also started implementing your recommendations on building our online audience: visiting, commenting and linking to other blogs, and we changed blogging platforms. But we are only touching the tip of the iceberg. We haven’t gotten the book out yet and have many more recommendations to implement. We are starting to see blog traffic and the time people stay on the blog increase with what we have done so far. We are also thinking about another book that would have interest to folks in the Western New York Community.

What would you tell someone who is considering A Bigger Voice?

I run in to so many people who have good ideas who don’t know how to get them out. A Bigger Voice is very progressive in helping people get to the essence of what their big idea is and how to get it out in an efficient way. Have faith and listen to you [the ABV team]. You may take them in a direction that they may not expect, but you will really help them clarify their ideas and message, and really help get it out in new ways. I think you are on to something very cutting edge.