A busy week of juggling flaming knives, and assembling a mountain of data into a visually appealing format, palatable for the average consumer.This part of my job makes me think of myself as a sleight-of-hand artist. Figuring out how to disguise information into a candy-coated morsel so that meeting participants will gobble it up rather than glazing over and looking at it in utter disgust.
That’s how it usually is with purveyors of numbers. Dry reports. An endless list of numerals that only someone like myself could find remotely appealing.
Maybe, in some respects, this part of my job is sort of like being a parent and getting kids to eat vegetables in a loving and creative way. Mixing them in with something they already like, maybe macaroni and cheese or pizza.
It works with my dogs.
Oh, but wait, my dogs will eat anything. So no, not really.
I recall sitting in on meetings when I worked at ESPN where the sales guys would do this all the time. First they would do it for the cable companies so they could try to get these guys to take on more ESPN services and then they hit the consumers with why they should call the cable company to urge them to take on the new service and how many more games they would see if they did. It was a fascinating exercise and there was much slight of hand afoot.
ReplyDeleteSo funny! I know just what you mean. And I love your vegetable analogy. I was thinking today about parts of my job that I don't like. They are a good exercise in discipline and duty. Data sucks...and sometimes it's your savior.
ReplyDeleteMixed media....data and creativity. You make it sound interesting and fun!
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