ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I DON’T BELIEVE in individualism narratives. What I mean by this is that I don’t believe an individual is solely responsible for his or her own successes or failures. I don’t believe that anyone gets anything to happen of significant value by saying he did it all on his own. Unless you really believe the myth that you do everything on your own, which would mean you have zero interaction with others on this planet or you don’t rely on customers that pay you a living wage, let’s put an end to that mythical individualism rhetoric now.

This book is dedicated to those who saw my different thinking and doing as adding value to their companies, agencies, creative labs, or projects in the past and will see this book as adding value to their business success in the future. I learned from some of the best in the heydays of the music industry that being on top means little in a time when imaginary ideas and creativity always topple the status quo.

I want to first thank my family. My older brother Brian is my greatest mentor in terms of how I view the world. Every phone call I have with you, Brian, is meaningful; and if things remind you of our discussions, it’s because those discussions have helped shape my worldview.

To my wife, Allison Dunmire. There is a reason I mention you in every public presentation. Every good idea has been your idea. I have enjoyed our journey together, exploring and learning so many new things. Life is anything but conventional with you.

To my daughters, Olive and Matilda. Your creative play is never shunned in our household in favor of mathematical tables or memorizing information. Computers can never replace creativity or human emotions. I can’t wait to see what art you share with the world.

To my mother and father, who are no longer physically here. You both have been the biggest inspiration to me. My mother was a hybrid (psychology/art) who realized where the world was going and that memorizing facts and stats is useless if you can program the computer with a whole new creative way to learn and inspire. My father made me understand via economics that people, not solely companies, are what make the world tick. It’s this reason I spent the majority of the book talking about people experiences as a big factor in how to approach the world.

I am especially grateful to everyone who took the time to be interviewed for the book, whether via email, a nice long phone conversation, or in person. The world is filled with really sharp and intelligent minds. We need to use these people to create things that go beyond simple vanity key performance indicators that seem to rule the world of business too much, including likes, video views, and average revenue per user stats. Let’s focus instead on items like user design feedback, time spent on a video when it’s replayed, and the average time users spend with product (engagement rate). These interviewees included Frank Rose, Anthony De Rosa, Steve Goldner, David Brooks, Mike Street, Julian Mitchell, Cindy Alvarez, Jennifer Moss, Matthew Woodget, Ann John, Allison Hemming, Georgette Chapman Phillips, Nicole Steinbok, Jackie Chen, Reb Carlson, Eric Drumm, Patricia MacKenzie, and Ashley McCollum.

I want to thank my friend and fellow inspirer Gemma Craven, who is one of the smartest and nicest people in the marketing industry and a true mentor. I look forward to more of our conversations soon on podcast episodes of Disruptive FM.

I thank those mentors and some of the great work I was able to do with them, including Frenzy, BOND Strategy and Influence, 360i, and Ogilvy & Mather. There are way too many individuals who have inspired this book, but a few include Jonathan Keith, Eric Cohen, Matthew Mills, Jeffrey Boyle, Cheryl Metzger, David Schneider, Bill Crowley, Marc Schiller, Howie Kleinberg, Matt Wurst, Orli LeWinter, Sarah Hoffstetter, Michelle Killebrew, John Bell, and Joe Bua. I want to especially thank Microsoft for seeing how my different thinking could help their own transformational endeavors—especially David Pann, Stephen Sirich, John Cosley, and Rik van der Kooi. I’d also like to thank my awesome team past and present of Tina Kelleher, Simone Schuurer, Christine McClure, Frances Donegan-Ryan, Nazeem Mustaffa, Ricky Poole, and Rob Johnson. I thank Sean Ellis, Morgan Brown, Mel Carson, Joy Archer, John and Shelby Gagnon, Brian and Tracy Northcutt Toba, David Kline, Laurel Geisbush, Jay Crutcher, Christi Olson, Hannah Arussel, Sara Clayton, Esther Christoffersen, Erika Hermanns, Jimmy Lin, Connie Woo, Kerry Gates, Lucy Wang, Nickie Smith, Katy Hunter, and the hundreds of others whom I have had daily talks with in terms of the shifting marketing mindscape.

I thank my two mentors Teresa Horgan and Marja Koopmans for always lending an ear.

I thank Ellen Kadin, my publisher at AMACOM Books; and the rest of the wonderful team including Jenny Wesselmann Schwartz, Barry Richardson, Janet Pagano, and Irene Majuk. I thank my literary agent, Wendy Keller of Keller Media.

I thank Stuart Tracte for the photos for the book and my website, Jeff Gilligan for the cover art and design advice, Peter Shankman and Mel Carson for the book advice, and the endless list of people who read the book and provided advance reviews.

Finally, I want to thank some places. Yes, geographical places filled with people can influence how you think. This is why more and more people keep moving back to urban areas. Three places have given me everything: Brooklyn, New York; Maplewood, New Jersey; and Seattle, Washington. They have really helped inspire my points of view. Brooklyn in particular gave me the first business I ever operated. It made me realize the world would be mobile and social by design as early as 2002. It also has given me my life partner and a bevy of friends who are just plain amazing. Although I now call the Pacific Northwest and the great city of Seattle home, Brooklyn will always be my first true love. Maplewood, New Jersey, made me realize that the creative class can be urban/suburban and the design thinking that occurs from being a real community. Seattle just does things differently and doesn’t care what others think of it.

Let’s not disrupt the conversation. Follow me on Twitter, @djgeoffe; connect on LinkedIn; or visit geoffreycolon.net.