Ts, Onions, and Lighthouses
What matters most to you?
A big question. A big question I don’t really have an answer to.
Chad Dick, from eatbigfish talked to the second year strategists this morning about crafting our lighthouse identities. Turning the principles of challenger brand building inward, we can uncover and then project an incorruptible ethos and core identity that differentiates us from the pack. Heidi Hackemer, the @uberblond BBH Planning Director, spoke to us last spring about honing our Ts—being competent in all areas, but experts in a select few. Finding our ‘thing’ and running with it.
I’ve long had a theory about chopping onions. Simply stated, unless you’re a professional chef, the way you chop an onion is a pretty good parallel to the way you go about life. I’ve watched a lot of people chop onions and there are a lot of different methodologies out there. For example, my friend [ ] is an accomplished gourmet home cook, generally put together and on top of every last detail, but also has this bombastic way about her, this inner silliness that informs her infectious smile, violently ticklish outbursts, and expressively unfiltered remarks. I’m afraid she’s going to chop off a finger whenever she wields a 9 inch Henkel chef’s knife and each time a lowly bulb comes under the unwieldy blade, I cringe. After a painful minute or two, a perfect mound of neatly diced onion betrays the crazed methodology that got it there. Not unlike the way the rest of her life goes, where she somehow always gets the job done, and done well, but has some extremely fudgy moments there in between. Her behind the wheel of a car? Let’s not even go there.
This is brand behavior. Once you have the core cemented, you can understand how a person/brand will act or react in every situation. But now we’re back to the first question. What is this elusive core? What does matter most to me?
I know I’m not alone in this arena, as a few of us were talking over dinner tonight about how we couldn’t get past the really silly when Chad challenged us to think about our own lighthouses. I can imagine an inner monologue sounding something like a chorus of “puppies!” “the internet!” “infographics!” fighting against a bellowing “think deeper, you fools.”
The truth is, it’s much easier to analyze an other, something extrinsic, than it is to look deeply into the one person we know best in the world. Taking that same analytical approach to myself, I’m left with a slightly smaller inner onion heart and lots of layers peeled back and discarded on the side of the chopping block. There’s something there in the center. I just haven’t pinpointed it yet.
