Sometimes you find inspiration in the most unusual places. This time it showed up at breakfast, in the most humble of origins.
I like to read with my breakfast. Totally against the high minded Ayurvedic digestive principles of my wife Vanessa, aka @CoachVanessa. But my mind needs feeding just like my stomach, and sometimes there's some surprising treats to be found.
Like this morning, with nothing close at hand to read, I began to look at the nearest thing, a bag containing the brown paper lunch bags we use for scooping cat litter in to.
These Safeway Basic Red lunch bags contained a surprise.
Just below the words LUNCH BAGS, it said:
SELF STANDING • FLAT BOTTOM • EASY TO OPEN
I had to laugh, as of course they're all these things. That copywriter must have been bleeding out the ears trying to come up with "features."
But then I thought, If a simple brown paper bag can be stretched to fit such previously un-thought of features, what is there about your company that we should know about that you haven't told us yet? What do you take for granted that we'd see as special, worth supporting? We're waiting.
What is it about your company, your culture, your product, that you take for granted that, when shared with others, would be seen as extraordinary? Help us see what you do, are, or offer that will make our lives better, expands our possibilities, is a boon to the planet, and is just plain a pleasure to experience. And please, don't deal in trivialities, give us something of substance. We'll thank you, and tell others.
And internally, what might be the effect of seeing yourself and your company in a new light? It's a no cost, high benefit endeavor I'd say.
Get to work. And tell us what you come up with, here in the comments.
Paul Smith is a sustainable business innovator, the founder of GreenSmith Consulting, blogs weekly on green start ups of note at Triple Pundit and has an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco. He creates interest in, conversations about, and business for green (and greening) companies, via social media marketing.
