Saturday, December 26, 2009

RIP, dear Vic....

Today brought post-christmas dawn glow and wonder, and then sharp stop upon reading news of the death of Vic Chesnut. Ol' Thought Coach was blessed to know him and to admire his courage and riveting displays of the craft and sullen art, to reference Dylan Thomas. His brutally-rarified aesthetic raised the southern gothic context to a new and reinvigorated niche of bewonderment, bedazzlement in the fractal face of the sacred broken heart. Humanity, your dumbshow joy and roughness.

Few if any have ever fish-tailed on the head of the cosmological pin so provocatively, so adroitly with the bottom line there like a bitter cold true north. yet the victory of his language, of his vision rendered in the merciless grace we know adorns all unspooling dharma...ah vic.

many thanks to you in the always ever-present hereafter. much praise to all who have gone before.

OK go.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Praise for Univ. of Tenn. at Martin

The Olde Thought Coach (OTC) checks in on a chilly Thursday, fresh from a bracing workout over at the University of Tennessee-Martin. One marketing grad class and one marketing undergrad class each took a swing at marketing analysis for the ol' DMSC and its Governors Challenge. OTC is still amazed at what students can do when they are engaged.

Many gracias to DMSC's and UT Martin's Steve Holt, whose conference was a smash, as well. OTC is going to be back on their mailing list for sure.

OTC brings back 5 marketing plans and 5 powerpoints, along with terrific assets derived from the undergrad's work, including a flawless excel speadsheet of service learning contacts across the country.

We gave out a 100.00 prize to the winning team in the grad division and recruited a couple of solid prospects to move our team out into the marketing mainstream for GovChal 4.0.

More on all this later.

Stay warm and dig the season. '09 was not for sissies; now is when we roll it over like a swimmer's flip turn.

Remember to breathe deep and do the thought yoga.

watch the watcher.

take another breath for 8 counts, hold for 8, then exhale for 8.

do that again.

Now: begin to look across your matrix (third eye thing) and begin incrementally setting up your reports.

folders, first.

then single wins in each folder.

now you walk away.

and when you come back, you begin doing your reps.

cycling the portfolio,

circling the assets,

integrating their value into your breathing.

Now go.