Every once in a while it happens to all of us. That crystalized moment when your eyes open widely and you think to yourself aha… that’s it!
For me it was on the tail end of a Fourth of July weekend with family and friends and enough time off to take care of all the household projects. I had asked my wife Diane if she minded if I did some writing for work as I had some thoughts I needed to get out. I felt I was on the verge of a creative break through and wanted the thought time. She said go for it, and go for it I did.
In reality, the thoughts weren’t the result of that morning. They were, and are, the result of thinking and conversations over the past 20 years about how “WE” do it better. They were the result of Executive coaching, mentoring and friendship from Kelly Fitzsimmons who asked me the question, “what do you really want to do?” To which I responded I want to build the state of the art Public Affairs Agency and I want to combine all of my seemingly disparate experiences into a powerful offering. They were the result of give-and-take over the years with the Di’s, Michael’s, Alan’s Dick’s, E’s, Steve’s, Joyce’s, Kate’s and so many others in my life. They were the result of a gazillion books on leadership, creativity, change, PR, business, technology, philosophy, religion and anything else I could lay my hands on to read. They were the result of a prescient understanding that if you are going to be a successful agency you need to differentiate yourself and your process. And while clients care about results, not process, the smart ones understand that it is the agency with a thoughtful, structured approach to achieving their goals. And that is who we want to work with.
In reality, some of the construct, we’ve been doing for years but not in a formal way, let alone put a name to it. What we’d never done – what I’d never done – was to weave it all together. I’d thought about it, pulled at its string, snipped at it, but never put it all together. On July 6th, I felt like it did. I created the Capstone Construct.
Simply stated, the Construct is a means to develop and convey a story in the most powerful way possible. It contains several components ideally used together but able to stand on their own. It holds our firm, and our partner clients accountable, it clarifies and defines, it creates and measures and it executes and implements. It works on stories, brands as well as on campaigns. The Construct combines the substance of a sophisticated research approach with state-of-the-art creative thinking and something that’s critical to the bottom line of the organizations we work with — measurable outcomes. As I said, for me it was and is an Aha moment.
Each of the components has a practical and intellectual justification to it. We’ve researched and developed multiple questions and actions to prompt us through the process. The idea is to blend state of the art approaches within a creative framework so we can powerfully deliver with our partner clients.
To my knowledge no firm has assembled or delivers a construct of this type. I think it’s a difference maker and think you will too. Please let me know if you’d like to continue the conversation on it, as I’d welcome the opportunity.
Check back tomorrow and throughout the week as I share a little more about the process.
For more background on Capstone’s CEO, John C. Rogers, click here for his bio at Capstone or here for his Wikipedia entry.
