163: Yes, and?

When Kathy Klotz-Guest approached me about doing a co-created piece of content, I wasn’t sure what to think. A co-written piece of content, like a blog? I know it’s been done before, but wasn’t sure what we’d have in common enough to get two trains of thought down into one post. Of course, you must try everything at least once in life, so I decided to roll with this. Besides, how painful could it be? Kathy is a rockstar, hilarious and super smart. Plus, she just wrote a book, so I knew she could help with the whole writing thing. Oh yea, go get her book here. The Setup Kathy Klotz-Guest and I chatted a few weeks back on the Brand Boost Podcast. In fact, that episode is so good, here it is for you to listen to: We chatted about improv and marketing, Happy Days, how “human” – yes, still an important word – has also ironically jumped the marketing shark in many ways, and why all marketers should think like improvisers whose central tenet is “yes and.” That is how improvisers build scenes together. This means you accept a statement made to you and add onto that idea so you are co-creating in a purposeful way. I’m a great improviser. Kathy is the improv queen. This was a match made in content heaven. Of course, we also talked about all of this in the context of Kathy’s new book: “Stop Boring Me! How to Create Kick-Ass Marketing Content, Products and Ideas Through the Power of Improv.” Kathy believes this, and I couldn’t agree more: every marketer and businessperson, for that matter, should take an improv class. So, we chatted, it was a great conversation and when we were almost done chatting, we talked excitedly about how improv is fundamentally about being collaborative. The recording stopped, and there we were, talking for another 30 minutes about this stuff. Naturally, we were both uber-excited about this new-found friendship and realized that this is how content creation can be better. What’s ironic is that this flies in the face of a very specific barrier to being more open and more collaborative with other parts of the organization and with customers for creating great content – control. In short, companies that think they control the brand are not only misguided (there is no such thing); they are getting in their own way when it comes to creating better content with others. Here we were, Kathy and I, ‘yes-and-ing’ each other on an idea that needed to be written. And that conversation inspired the list below. And, in true “improv” fashion, we wanted this article to be a collaborative effort as well. Kathy started some of the ideas, I added and we polished it up for our audiences. Without further adieu… The Ten Brand and Content Commandments    The customer always has the final word on the brand. It doesn’t matter what you say about your brand or products, if your customers aren’t happy or advocating for you, you h