Everyone wants to go to Hollywood. To make a movie, be a star or tell a story. To get rich and famous and change the world.

Instead, only a handful of people we write off as wanna-bees, unless they actually make it, wind up going anywhere near Sunset and Vine.

No, we just talk and dream of the what if’s and reject the high risk and walk instead to the ticket booth to sit down and watch George Clooney play Michael Clayton. George actually went to Hollywood before he was George Clooney. He doesn’t buy tickets; he sells ideas.

It all boils down to the roles we will all play in the film of our lives, which is being shot right now. Will we be extras, passives, unknowns carried by the script or will we be activists who write and direct and star? Will we be popcorn chomping spectators or the royalty we are watching from the dark of our seats? Will we read John Krakauers’ book, “Into the Wild” and place it back on the library shelf or “Sean Penn” it into a tour de force of a young man who sets out to poke a stick in every life assumption handed to us as gospel?

For every Sean Penn, there are a million passives. For every George Clooney, there are legion of dreamers.

All of my life, I have heard people say “I want to write a children’s book.” “I want to start a business.” “I wish I went to business school.” “I am sorry I never learned to play the drums.” “I want to run a division in my company.”

I used to say, “Why don’t you? What’s in your way?” But I don’t say a word now. I know the answer.

They have a path they ride. They get in their cars, turn on the Sirius, listen to Mayer, Madonna, Matchbox and watch the streets go buy. Alone, driving along, they think of what was and what will be from point A to point B and back again. This is good. This is safe. This is what the people who paint by numbers want us to do.

It is so neat; it is an insult to God.

The map of my life looks like a toddler finger-painted it. It drips all over the floor. It takes detours to Paris. It writes odes to God. But it is always that of an activist, with a gun at my own head, reminding me to find what no one has yet discovered. And once I do that, or fail at it, to search for something else, for another treasure.

Tomorrow, when I cruise down the road, I will look for the sign that reads “Last Exit To Hollywood” I will turn the wheel.

And I will disappear there.

Mark Stevens
CEO

What role do you play in your life?

By Chris Kieff Sr. Blog Editor for Unconventional Thinking

As most of you know, Mark is currently writing 2 blogs, Unconventional Thinking (this one), and the Digital PR News Online Blog. However, what many of you may not know is that he’s been writing blogs as a companion to his new book “God Is A Salesman” (Shameless plug: Pre-order your own copy today online.) So Mark is now writing 3 weekly blogs in addition to his normal duties of running MSCO.

On Monday you will receive the first blog post with an invitation to subscribe. If you would like to receive the God Is A Salesman blog via email YOU MUST RESPOND TO THE MESSAGE or you will not be subscribed to the blog. This will be your only chance to become a Charter Subscriber to the God Is A Salesman Blog.

MSCO is proud to announce the brand new blog:

God Is A Salesman

You are invited to become a Charter Subscriber.

I’ll leave the explanations of the principles in God is a Salesman up to Mark, you can learn all about it here: www.GodIsASalesman.com. As one who has read the book I’ll tell you that it can be a life changing experience. (And those of you who know me, know that I didn’t have to say that.)

Back here at Unconventional Headquarters we’ve been doing a lot of work getting ready for the launch of the book and some new business ventures for MSCO. We are going to offer several new products and services based on the principles in God is a Salesman in addition to the new blog. So exciting things are a-foot here and we know that you will find them interesting. We will be making announcements about the new products and services as soon as they are available.

One thing I want to say as the UberGeek, to those of you who read the blog only via email; You are missing half of the action! Most blog entires get several people writing in comments or observations as comments. Unfortunately you can’t see the comments in the email version of the blog. So don’t hesitate to click on the blog button in the email and go to the online version of the blog where you can check out the comments and leave one of your own www.MSCO.com/blog

That’s all for now. We at Unconventional HQ (aka MSCO) want to thank you for your time and support in reading and frequently commenting on the blog. Don’t ever hesitate to let us know what you think.

Sincerely,

Chris Kieff, Director of Internet Marketing, MSCO
Sr. Blog Editor, Unconventional Thinking, God Is A Salesman Blog
UberGeek of MSCO

There is no doubt that right now, in mid-2007, Google is the premier company in the world. It buys all of the best minds, it drives them to keep making the impossible, possible, it grows its business model almost daily and it makes it all work, cubed. It seems there is nothing Google can’t do.

So I say it’s time for the search engine, advertising, algorithm crunching juggernaut to buy Starbucks. Starbucks? Why the hell would they want to do that? Because what used to be one of the true stars of the corporate galaxy-a Google of its industry-is now a sad, tired, arrogant, sloppy, remnant of the past. Yesterday, I had breakfast with a friend in the Starbucks in New Canaan, CT. Did I say breakfast? Airlines don’t serve such plastic food. But we were there and hungry so we picked the best of the worst and then set out to find a table outdoors. Oh, there were plenty of tables, but we had the temerity to want a CLEAN one. At the Starbucks 2007, that is always mission impossible. So we bused the table ourselves and enjoyed the autumn like day in New England. And then we both had to use the restrooms and let me say I’m glad we ate first. I know this store has been open for years-and it used to be a delight when Starbucks still had the word “customer” in its lexicon-but I don’t think the restrooms have ever been cleaned. EVER! My friend and I could only debate if the ladies room was more disgusting than the men’s, or vice versa.

What is happening to Starbucks is an all-too familiar corporate scenario: once it looks like you can’t do wrong, that the cash machine will just keep on pumping, management loses its intensity or becomes distracted or just doesn’t give a damn anymore. And the arc that every business moves through slides south, slowly at first, and then into a dizzying freefall. Now Starbucks has a zillion shops selling ok coffee in filthy surroundings adorned with prison food. So imagine Google steps in. In months, every Googlebucks is wireless, plasma TV screens line the walls, video games are built into the spotless tables, Thai specialties are worked behind the gleaming counter, and on and on. You wouldn’t recognize the place. Amen.

Some months ago middle of the road hotel giant Marriott paid a visit to ultra chic and inventive hotelier, Ian Schrager. Marriott is the behemoth of the hotel industry, Schrager a virtual gnat next to them. But Bill Marriott is a big enough man to admit his dynasty of a company can learn from Schrager. Absorb some of its sex appeal and open doors to the boutique segment Marriott is absent from. Most companies would not admit they lack the DNA to create a product with an entirely different culture than their own. But not Bill Marriott. So he boarded a plane, ate humble pie and asked Schrager for help. They will partner in 100 hotels around the world. And the experience will impact Marriott’s 2,900 locations. For the better.

Marriott needs a dose of Schrager. Starbucks needs a dose of Google. Starbucks is on too high a horse to ask for it. So Google go buy the fading star and remind them what a great business looks like.

Once we stop learning, once we start thinking we have it all figured out, we become Chrysler, General Motors, and Jet Blue. Dumb companies selling junk to people they couldn’t care less about.

Mark Stevens
CEO

Tell Me How You Will Avoid Being Another Dumb Company.

This story appeared in the Bedford/ Pound Ridge Record Review newspaper on Friday August 17th 2007, and is reprinted here with permission.

Freedom of speech violation or just doing business?

By EVE MARX of the Bedford Record Review

Mark Stevens is ticked. The Pound Ridge resident and CEO of MSCO, a Rye Brook-based international management and marketing firm, took a hit earlier this year when an ad for Mr. Steven’s latest book, “YourMarketingSucks.com,” on a billboard in New Rochelle was abruptly removed. He said Clear Channel Outdoor, the company responsible for the billboard, never notified him they were taking it down.

The reason, a spokesperson for Clear Channel, Jennifer Gery, said, was, “Some officials complained.”

In addition to running a company, Mr. Stevens is the author of 20 books including “Sudden Death: The Rise and Fall of E.F. Hutton,” a Wall Street Journal best seller and Library Journal business book of the year. His enormously popular “Your Marketing Sucks,” published by Crown in 2003, is a perennial best seller in paperback and overseas. The “Your Marketing Sucks”billboard has been displayed in numerous markets around the U.S. including Manhattan, and two locations in New Rochelle.

“The billboard was up and we were getting a lot of response from it,” Mr. Stevens said last week. “It got people going to our Web site and generated a lot of Web site traffic to the MSCO Web site. Then one day I was in a conference room in my offices in Rye Brook and I got a call from a guy who demanded to speak to my assistant.”

Mr. Stevens said the man was “furious.”

“He said he was driving along and he saw the ‘Your Marketing Sucks’ billboard and he flew into a rage. He started screaming. He said he had his 5-year-old daughter in the car and that my billboard had ruined her life.”

Mr. Stevens said he never got the name of the man, who said he was a vice president of a division of Berkshire Hathaway, an Omaha, Nebraska based company whose chairman and CEO is Warren Buffett. “He said my billboard ruined his daughter’s life but his phone call basically ruined my day.”

Mr. Stevens said he tried explaining to the man that the word “suck” was not an obscenity.

The caller wouldn’t hear it.

“He demanded I rip the board down,” Mr. Stevens said. “He said that if I didn’t, he would bring the wrath of the entire Berkshire Hathaway empire down on me and my business. I told him I don’t take to threats kindly and I said goodbye.”

But that wasn’t the end of the story.

Soon afterwards, without notice, Clear Channel tore the billboard down.

Mr. Stevens only became aware of this turn of events by accident when he took a drive to see his billboard and found it blank.

“I thought it was a mistake,” he said. He called Clear Channel and was told his message was down because of official complaints. Besides his grievance that its removal was in violation of his contractual agreement, Mr. Stevens feels his First Amendment rights have been violated. “Where do you draw the line?” he said. “It’s like taking every newspaper in the country and burning it because you don’t like the headline.”

Since then, Mr. Stevens has been interviewed by USA Today, Reuters, and numerous radio networks about the incident. What really ticked him off was that Clear Channel gave him no reimbursement, no apology and no explanation.

In similar situations across the nation, residents and lawmakers have been demanding signage deemed to be offensive be taken down. In some cases, the signs do not have to be removed, but must be set a certain distance from the highway. There may be other restrictions. For example, a billboard in Manhattan displaying bare bottoms with smiley faces never saw the light of day after a judge last July temporarily blocked its installation because the nearby Times Square Church objected. In 2001 the billboard industry added an anti-obscenity clause to its code of principles. The clause has been both vilified and applauded depending on who is doing the complaining.

“I feel completely angry,” Mr. Stevens said, although he said Clear Channel agreed to put up another billboard in another location with different text.

“They did not notify me which they are contractually obligated to do,” Mr. Stevens said. “It’s crazy, but there were two billboards in the same community that had the same message. One is still up and the other is down.”

Mr. Stevens said at one point he was planning to take Clear Channel to court, but then they gave him a free board. “There are other companies that do billboards,” Mr. Stevens said. “I could have gone to any one of them. My company has a major campaign and there hasn’t been a single problem anywhere else in the country except for New Rochelle.”

Mr. Stevens said there is nothing pornographic about the word “suck,” which he believes lies at the heart of the issue. “The word is not pejorative. There’s nothing pornographic or insulting to anyone except for marketers whose ideas don’t work.” He said he can’t be responsible for things that other people have a problem with. “There are people who have a problem with dogs who aren’t dressed,” he said. “There’s a whole movement against dogs not wearing clothes.” He also pointed out that a diet book called “Skinny Bitch” is now a hot best seller.

“Somebody at Clear Channel is clearly afraid of somebody in New Rochelle,” Mr. Stevens asserted. “I have no idea who called me that day on the phone. I feel like I’m on trial and I don’t even know who the accuser is.”

When contacted by The Record-Review, Jennifer Gery, the Clear Channel spokeswoman and an employee of Brainerd said that she was no longer commenting on the situation and that a Clear Channel executive would have to respond to any questions. So far there has been no response.

“I know political correctness has risen to tidal wave proportions,” Mr. Stevens said. “Still, ‘YourMarketing Sucks.com’ is not the worst thing anyone is going to hear or see all week.”

This story reprinted with the permission of the Bedford/ Pound Ridge Record Review.

Click on the image to read the whole article on the USA Today Website.

Mark Stevens is in the national spotlight again, this time in a page 3 story in USA TODAY: “CITIES DRAW LINE ON RISQUÉ BILLBOARDS”.

Hundreds of new visitors came to MSCO’s Web sites, no doubt intrigued by the message and asking: Who gets to decide what’s OK and what’s risqué?

The articles begins: “Mark Stevens has seen his website’s name in the clouds, if not exactly in lights: ‘www.YourMarketingSucks.com.’” The reporter, Charisse Jones, then gives an account of how this message was posted on a billboard purchased by Stevens, and one day, without notice, explanation or reimbursement, he drove past it only to find the message removed.

The article identifies similar billboard messages across the country taken down because of one or several complaints. But ask yourself: Do you have a right to eliminate or remove everything you disagree with or don’t like? Is that the American way? Or do we behave like adults who know that everyone won’t agree or like every thing, and move on.

Read the article online to get Mark’s reaction, and comment on the story yourself.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-06-billboards_N.htm

In case you missed the kerfuffle earlier you can read Mark’s original post here: Mark Stevens Vs. Warren Buffet And you can read some of the comments on the issue here: Comments on Billboards that Suck

And we’re interested in knowing your take on this whole issue, even if you made a comment earlier… leave one now.

By: Chris Kieff

Okay, the iPhone has eclipsed Paris Hilton as the media’s hysterical focus of attention. It’s the new subject of furious debate that amounts to nothing more than a tempest in a teapot. Will the iPhone sell? Does it connect slowly to the Internet? Is it too expensive? Is it truly a technical marvel? Is Jobs just a huckster with slick designs?

The discussion dominates the national dialogs, techie columnists are spewing forth with their self-important critiques, news shows are holding viewer polls and…Steve Jobs could care less. Not a whit. Zero. He isn’t listening to a word. He’s off at his bowling league or whatever the hell he does when he isn’t making billions selling stuff everyone else wishes they thought of.

It’s not that he doesn’t care about the iPhone’s success. This is one driven capitalist. It’s just that he knows that the iPhone has a secret weapon that assures its fantastic success. A weapon he did not create but one he manipulates masterfully.

It is called Christmas.

Nothing, absolutely nothing can stop millions from putting iPhones under the tree on December 25^th. Steve Jobs owns a big share of Apple but his dirty little secret is that he owns a bigger share of Christmas.

Slow connecting to the Internet? He’ll fix that but even if he didn’t, do I want a damn tie for the holidays or an iPhone? I have absolutely no need for the new Jobs toy, I may not even use it. I may stick with my ugly old cell phone and ancient Blackberry Pearl, but don’t give me the damn tie. I want an iPhone. Just because it’s cool and fun and sexy and none of your business, I want it. And I want to give it for Christmas. Dozens of them. And the gods of tech reviews can’t stop me.

Steve’s true genius isn’t commercializing the graphical user interface, or music downloads, or putting every form of digital information in your palm. It is instead in owning Christmas.

There is a big, noisy, powerful lesson here for everyone in business. Don’t just focus on the product or service, think about THE day people have to buy something en-masse and make it YOUR day. Then you can go bowling while everyone else is working.

Ask Hallmark. Steve did.

Now tell me what you are going to do differently to make your day.

Mark Stevens
CEO

So I received a signed limited edition photo of my ex-wife Uma Thurman today. She sent it with a lovely handwritten note, “Happy Birthday From Your EX, Love Uma.”

I hate to air family laundry in my blog, but I am steamed! So here goes…

We had five good years together before her head got swelled by the Hollywood machine and we went our separate ways. Now I do fine financially, but she makes $20 million a pop for Kill Bill’s and then there’s the 2,000 products she endorses. And when we split, the divorce required her to pay me $32.6 million. What have I received so far? How does zero sound? What about nada? The selfish self-absorbed diva has one excuse after another. And I’m sick of it. Up to here!

Truth be told, I was never married to Uma. She begged but there was another Queen of my heart. So what am I saying here? Hold on, there is a point to be made…a method to my madness.

Several months ago, I wrote a blog, Men and Women, and joked that Uma was my ex wife. And What! Clients, friends, etc. started calling to tell me they never knew the blonde nuclear bomb and I were once married. And it happens every week. And then Uma sends me her signed photo.

So the point is this: Say anything with conviction, get others to repeat it , let the viral thing do its magic. And a lie, an exaggeration, becomes the truth. The gospel.

Pay up Uma. Kate (Moss) and I want to buy a Gulfstream.

Mark Stevens
CEO

Everyone has someone who does what they do better. Orders of magnitude better. Scary better. Like two different planets.

In ‘65, Bob Dylan emerged from Fourth Street obscurity to a global comet the Beatles felt compelled to hear in person. And just as Dylan was actually changing the world - how many people have done that - the British media was equating him to Donovan. Mellow Yellow man. Vanilla ice cream man. 60’s bubble gum man. So Dylan gets pissed. Tsunami pissed. This wedding singer is being compared to me! To Mr. Rolling Stone. To the Bard Redux. I will humiliate the musical crumb!

And the time comes. The King is in his hotel room a few days before he is to command Royal Albert Hall and the Yellow flake shows up to sing for the Dylan entourage. And he actually croons what sounds like a gem. A really good song. With the glow of pride still on his face, Dylan - the alpha male - is ready to crush Donovan. Flatten the fairy. So he commandeers the guitar from Mellow and a second after the former sings his syrup, Dylan rolls in to Baby Blue. Case closed. There is one songwriter in the room and one forgettable prop for the history books. A footnote.It’s the same in business. You think you have a great coffee shop and then you see Starbucks. You believe you have a cool hotel and then you stay at a W. You think making cars is enough and then you examine a Toyota.

Life is short. Business is unforgiving.

Dylan had no patience. Donovan had no talent. Is your business Dylan or Donovan? Are you Dylan or Donovan? If you don’t insist on greatness (and I don’t mean dime a dozen goodness) the angry bastard next to you will grab the Fender out of your hands and show you how mediocre you are. Ready?

And Today May 24 is Bob Dylan’s 66th Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the man who changed the world!

Mark Stevens
CEO

Imagine this: a company arrives in town and offers the good people who live there jobs. No one is forced to take one. No one holds a gun to their head. The same company then has the temerity to say, “If you work hard and serve our customers well, we will promote you from within.” Horrors.

Now let’s look at the other side. A company arrives in town and offers the good people who live there just about anything they want for less money. The bastards actually save people money. Money they can use for nest eggs and college tuitions. Why doesn’t the National Guard march in and close down a company like this?

Hearing Wal-Mart’s detractors you would believe the company is a disgrace. Instead it is a national treasure. Sam Walton started with an idea, and with drive and determination he built a wonderful business. Isn’t this the essence of capitalism? Oh, but wait a minute, do the Wal-Mart whiners want capitalism?

Oh, I know the school of hatred that says Wal-Mart arrives in towns and crushes the local merchants. The ones who charge you more? Who lived off the fat of little or lazy competition at your expense? Here’s what I say to that: Wal-Mart is great for competition. I have competitors. I lose business to them. When? When they are smarter or cheaper than my company. And it makes me think:

• How can we raise the bar on our work?
• How can we be as efficient as possible?
• Do we do enough to promote from within?

Walk the streets around any Wal-Mart in the world. What will you find? A mass of small businesses that found a way to survive, to thrive, precisely because they understand business is a jungle and that they can’t rely on the whiners to protect them. If any of these small businesses become the next Starbucks, the whiners will want to punish them for their success in a heartbeat. Blame global warming on them. Toss them in the prison for the rich and throw away the key.

And by the way, on those same Wal-Mart streets you also find a Target, which became an exponentially better business competing with the house that Sam built.

If you don’t have a Wal-Mart on turf, pretend you do. Go to sleep concerned. Never settle for how your business currently performs. Declare war on every aspect. Leave no rocks to hide under.

And Wal-Mart stop wasting good shareholder dollars on PR to silence the whiners, because you can’t. This is their sex.

Mark Stevens
CEO

That’s the fission of men and women. That’s the Da Vinci of life. That’s the code breaker for a magnificent business. Men and women.

Mark Stevens

CEO

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