Entries in the 'Books' Category

Office Book Club: Shankman’s Can We Do That?!

We started a book club at 360PR a couple of years ago.  This summer’s selection was Peter Shankman’s Can We Do That?!.   The subtitle on the jacket calls this a book about PR stunts.  But it’s more than that.  I found the most interesting chapters focused on how to find your creative streak, too often lost among the myriad of emails and meetings we come into every day and can’t seem to get out from under.  Shankman’s team went skydiving to jumpstart their creativity.  I’m not jumping out of any planes for clients or staff (sorry guys).  But the point about getting out of the office is a good one.

 

Peter Shankman’s Can We Do That?!

 

My best ideas never come from the confines of my desk or our conference room.  I find the office is a great place to do the research that can lead to big ideas, or to refine the big idea and put meat on the bone.  But the big ideas inevitably come at odd hours and in odd places.  The produce aisle.  The hair salon.  Walking the dog.  “Ideas come to you when you least expect them: be ready. Not only ready to write down the idea, but ready to act on it immediately,” says Shankman. [Read more →]

Summer Reading

One of the reasons I love vacation is it gives me time to catch up on all those articles I’ve been flagging and filing, as well as dig into a new book or two. When I was a kid, I looked forward to the book mobile’s monthly visits to my school, especially at the end of the year when I received a chart and stickers to record how many books I could read over the summer (stickers really motivate - or used to anyway). For a time, around age 8, I was a big Encyclopedia Brown fan.

A day into our vacation we made our way to Edgartown Books. I picked up a book I’d been meaning to read for a while, Big Russ & Me by Tim Russert. The book was published in 2004, and I had somehow forgotten about it until Tim Russert’s recent and sudden death. It reads like a conversation – like Tim Russert is sitting in your living room sharing childhood memories.

[Read more →]