getting better

I've pretty much narrowed my goals to one.

Get better.

Two years ago I was watching Linsey race the Wildflower Triathlon in California. I decided to take my iPhone out of my pocket and shoot a video of the race. I edited the video on the phone and posted it to her YOUTUBE account shortly after she crossed the line.

Here's a link to the video.

Two years and 300 thousand YOUTUBE views later, I'm still shooting Linsey's race videos. In pursuit of my simple goal to get better, I've watched countless hours of lynda.com videos, purchased Adobe Creative Cloud, and, most recently, purchased a Sony Nex 5T. 

Below are two race videos from Linsey's 2014 race campaign. Even better, she won both events and broke the American Ironman Record in the latter.  Speaking of the latter, it began with 5,433 GoPro images and landed in the composition you can view below.

 I'm not good, but I'm better. And, this remains the goal today.   


life's more fun working with passion

I'm not talking about me (although, also true).  I'm talking about the brands I work with daily. No one better represents this passion for their work than Mark Miller at Precision Bikes. After 25 years as a jewler, Miller took the leap of faith for his love: Bicycles.

Ten years later, he has built something special in Lafayette, Louisiana.  He's built a bike shop with a culture and community that's infectious. So infectious, it pulls from a three state region (MS, TX, LA). Anyone can carry bicycle inventory, but you're hard pressed to find a shop with the passion than Mark Miller brings to the bike business.  

On my first trip, I caught this bug in Lafayette (as well as some po' boys, biscuits, etoufee, etc.). Fortunately for me, Precision Bike's digital BRAND didn't match the unique experience Mark Miller had created when you walked through the doors of the shop. This is what I love to do–build digital brands–so I jumped at the opportunity.  

This project consisted of a new digital brand and a video series. 

New Digital Brand

This process started with building an entirely new responsive website. The first and most important piece of the equation is the look and feel.  One observation, I made right away is nearly every bike brand is black, white and red.  Precision had already embraced this design, so the website also carried this brand continuity.  Mark made a strategic decision not to sell online, so we wanted to make sure the page creatively showcased the inventory he had on hand, as well as the importance of stopping by the shop and joining the shop culture, hence, the imagery of the groups rides. 

From an SEO perspective Precision Bikes is fortunate to have a content creating machine in the form Ruud Vuijsters (say that 3 times fast, or just say it once, actually).  He's blogging on a daily basis and Google loves content creators, so we made sure the blog streamed through to the home page for Google crawlers. The brands carried by the shop are also linked back to the blog. Finally, we established additional touchpoints in the form Google+ and a Youtube channel, to increase organic search traffic. 

Video Creation 

Once we built the website, we wanted to begin to telling the brand stories through the use of video. I flew to Lafayette (more biscuits, boudin & cracklins, po' boys, etc.)  and spent two days chasing Mark Miller with a video camera.  For the record, this chase begins at 4:30 am daily. I've included the first of a video series below: PASSION.  It's impossible to turn on a camera and not tell Mark's story of passion.  

As I made my video edits, I learned an important lesson: LIFE'S MORE FUN WORKING WITH PASSION. 

He hates those cans

In 2009, Big Sky Brewing Company was required (by law) to destroy all of the test cans run on it's new canning system. Seriously. Forced to destroy perfectly good MOOSE DROOL. The brewery used a couple of .50 caliber rifles for the job, to lessen the pain. 

Nearly 5 years later, the brewery is selling .50 cal bottle openers and I saw this as an opportunity to tell the story our painful past.  I had to go with the funeral music. 


Big Sky Brewing Giving 2013.

For years, "Mum was the word" regarding annual giving at Big Sky Brewing Company. Seeing as the company broke $100K in giving for 2013, I thought this should change.  The video below showcases this giving. We didn't want people to think we were taking ourselves too seriously, so I inserted a meowing cat in the middle of the video.

Enjoy! 

 Here's a link to the full post, including accompanying text.  

How to increase twitter followers 20K overnight. Win Gold.

When I turned on the Olympics last Thursday, I took note of one athlete in particular: Jamie Anderson. I naturally gravitated to her digital media and grabbed a capture of her twitter profile. 

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13.3K followers and an olympic dream.  Well, that dream came true for Jamie and her reach was rewarded according.  Here is her current twitter profile and climbing.  

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And a summary for the week looks like this, including 20,268 new followers yesterday without sending out a single tweet. 

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Anyone who has ever "organically" tried to grow a twitter account can appreciate the magnitude of this overnight success.  Here are some thoughts on this Slopestyle caliber jump:

  1.  Massive Media Engine.  Most media outlets (all with their own reach) are pointing its viewers to Sochi. Success under this fire power brings digital media reach to the "stars" of the games. 
  2. Stories. As Jamie found success, the stories spread, 1 of 8 siblings, free spirit, etc.  The Olympics are about stories and Jamie had one to tell. 
  3. Gradual release. Previously, you'd wait from prime time TV. With the age of digital, the media is released over time (TV hitting nearly 1 day away) which increases the noise of the reach. 
  4. Everyone has their own channel (adding to #1). People love to talk about current events on social media. Even if you missed the New York Times piece on Jamie, chances are you saw one of your friend's posts. 
  5. Authenticity. If you watch Jamie, you get the feeling she's real. The reason I grabbed her screen capture in the first place. 
  6. Never been done before. Jamie had additional eyeballs on the Slopestyle course as the event was one of the first out of the gates and new to the games. 
  7. A big name points to the event.  Besides, leading the games, and being new, a big name–Shaun White (1.3 million twitter followers)–also pointed his reach directly to Slopestyle when declined to compete in the event. 
  8. Follow another success.  Sage Kotsenburg captured a gold medal and similar twitter growth the day before Jamie. This peaked interest in Jamie's performance. 
  9. Win.  Winning is the greatest point of differentiation. The silver medalist's twitter reach grew by about 4% the number of followers as Jamie.

Jamie Anderson arrived in Sochi with a dream and a twitter profile. Now she has a gold medal and reach. Congrats! 

The key to luck: TRY

This past weekend I made the journey to the fabled North Umpqua River in Oregon. Pointing my truck south from our new home in Bend, I understood the challenge. A take from a winter run steelhead on a swung fly is no easy feat, and the fish of the North Umpqua are known for their snobbery. My homework told me:

  • Finishing school for steelhead fly fishing
  • Tricky currents, uncertain wading, difficult fly presentations
  • Success is measured in days per fish, not fish per day 
  • Flows are low and few winter run fish have arrived 
  • The legendary Steamboat Inn is closed for the season 

Even so, I wanted to go for the experience. I wanted to see the ecosystem, build a fire, drink a beer, and make a spey cast in pristine waters. All in hopes for a LUCKY tug from a willing participant.  Well, I found that LUCKY tug (video below) and it still has me smiling, when I think about it. 

On my three hour drive home, I pondered the simplicity of this fly fishing success. TRY. The key to luck is to TRY.  No matter what people say, if you don't TRY you'll never know. 

I'm glad I did. 


a video gift

2013 marks the year that I went from shooting and editing videos exclusively on my iPhone to a big boy camera and real video editing software.  A Sony Nex 5TL and Premiere Pro CS6 respectively, if you were curious. 

2013 also marks the year I served on the board of the Wild Rockies Field Institute (WRFI), a Missoula non-profit organization that integrates educations with field studies in an interdisciplinary approach. Also known as "Earning college credit while living in your tent. Seriously." 

As a board member, I decided to apply my new video tools towards  the charitable gift of a video.  I blocked off a couple of weekends to assemble  the recruiting video above –using images provided by students & instructors I might add. The video is designed to accompany an oral presentation during campus visits made by the organization. 

It's my first video gift. I hope they like it. 

Dear Cancer: Team Biscuits and Gravy Hates YOU!

If you know me,  you know I hate cancer and love digital branding.  Movember is the best of both worlds.   A perfectly crafted digital media strategy that leverages existing channels (twitter, facebook, youtube, etc.) and brands (toms, seven, electric) to raise millions of dollars for a fight against cancer.  Yes, millions. 

Personally, this year means more to me than the previous three. This time last year my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. This time this year, he is cancer free.  With this additional motivation, I've assembled a team of the best men in triathlon and even designed a team logo based on the hipster logo guide.  Together, we're raising as much awareness and money as possible and would appreciate your support. 

Here is the link to support me and this cause:   mobro.co/chriscorbin

 As a token of my appreciation, I'll leave you with my arsenal of Moustache videos

 

Thoughts on #Lucky 13

 Leading up to the 2013 Ironman World Championships, I crafted the idea to give an insider's view of how a professional athlete prepares for the big day and what products make this journey possible.  After receiving buy in from 6 sponsors,   www.linseylucky13.com was born.  

I've received multiple questions about the idea/execution and decided to take the time to share my thoughts. 

Start as soon as possible. And change.  I started using the Lucky 13 platform and technology right away. The experimentation allowed me to realize what would and wouldn't work before Day 1 arrived.  I soon found out the live streaming feature, I intended to use, wasn't an option in Hawaii.  As such,  we changed the originally proposed project, almost immediately. 

Use a hub and spoke model.  The hub was www.linseylucky13.com and we used several spokes, pitch engine, facebook, twitter, youtube & instagram to drive traffic back to the hub.  I believe this should be the model for all digital media strategies. 

Beat the buzz.  Every year the media buzz escalates as the World Championship approaches and eventually becomes a media yelling match in final week.  Lucky 13 kicked off 15 days before the race day, in the calm before the storm. 

Keep it real.  There are several shots, cuts, and pieces of dialogue that could–and probably should–have been edited. I chose to leave these pieces as a trade for authenticity over production quality.

Ignore the numbers.  Well... kind of.  I had three different analytical tools recording visits and views for Lucky 13.  The hosting platform for Lucky 13 doesn't provide click through views to YouTube, so what looked like a marginally popular video on YouTube was doing really well on the hosted site.  We considered driving people directly to YouTube to boost views, but decided in the end to ignore the numbers. 

Have a great team. Yes cliche, and yes true. Trek, Saucony, Clif Bar, SRAM,  Kamut and Speedplay all bought in right away, and gave us the creative freedom to do as we pleased. This is critical. Furthermore, design from Bigrin Design , photos from Tom Robertson, and off course the personality of the lovely Linsey Corbin made Lucky 13, well, Lucky 13.    

 Have fun. Because I was shooting, editing, and uploading  content on a daily basis my average hours of sleep plummeted.  I also spent much of my  time in Hawaii staring at my computer screen. I didn't care; I was having fun. 

 

 

New Business Cards

What did I do this weekend? Made new business cards. The big idea was to have continuity with corbinbrands.com and minimize all the contact info to variations of my email address: chris@corbinbrands.com.  In an effort to do so, I realized all my other contact info and channels, could be taken from this base. 

Rather than say it several times, I attempted to only say it once on the card.  

 

33 Lessons in 33 years

I started this annual reflection at the age of 31.  Each year I add a new lesson and a new fly.  In no particular order of importance…

1. It’s your life.  No two people are the same. Embrace the gifts, challenges, and opportunities given to you.

2. Nothing is ever as good or bad as it seems.  The bottom is not that low and the top is not that high.

3. Family matters. At least to me. Good, bad, and ugly, I know my family loves me and this gives me strength. Find strength in your family.

4. Find your passion. Branding, fly fishing, water ….  Passions make life worth living and people with passions make the world go round.

5. Do what you love. This is generally the easiest thing for you to do. What you think about when you go to bed and what you think about when you get up? Do that.

6. Fill wasted time.  Road trip or long commute? Fill your Ipod with audio material you don’t have time to read.

7. Carpe Diem. I’ve heard for years: “you’re young.” Don’t wait for the perfect time, because it will never come.

8. Use your words. The brain is a powerful engine and words drive this motor. What you think and say is what you will become.

9. Stay on your feet. Run simple and stand up.

10. Make lists. Simple “to do” lists have become my greatest productivity tool. Email, call, errands, projects, media, etc., all have their own weekly “to do” lists.

11. Buy tickets not toys. I have no shortage of toys, but reflecting back, it’s the trips I remember most, not the “things” I purchased.

12. Nobody is watching you. I’ve always thought people were watching me. What will they think if…? Don’t make decisions based on what other people will think, make decisions for your best interest.  (The  18-40-60 Rule)

13. Do your best. Win or lose you did your best, what more can you ask for? You gave your best.

14. You grow in the valleys not in the mountains.  Times get tough, that is inevitable. As bad as they may be, these experiences craft our character and build our strength.

15. Continuously learn. Read, listen, watch, write.  Never stop learning.

16. Everything is relative. Everything. A 15-inch trout is a great catch, until you land one that is 20 inches.

17. Riches have nothing to do with money.  Today, I'm going on a fishing trip with my dad.  At moments, it will be impossible to be richer than us.

18. Set Goals. I set about 50 goals a year each divided into six priorities in my  life:  family, faith, fitness, finances, focus, freelance.

19. Tell someone the goals you set. This will increase accountability and likelihood of achievement.

20. Buy a dog. Health and happiness will follow. 

21. Eat right and sleep well. I used to think both were a waste of time and resources; I now realize they are two of the greatest inputs to energy and performance.

22. Be spiritual. Not offensive, wacky, sign-holding spiritual, spirituality that gives you peace and purpose. Spirituality that allows you to embrace your blessings.

23. Live where you want.   If fly fishing, running, riding, recreation, craft beer, and community are important to you, live there. If they’re not, live somewhere else.

24.  Love. Marriage is my most prized possession.

25. Don’t be a critic.  It’s easier to be a critic than correct; respect the man in the arena.

26. Find your happy place. Go there when you need to calm the inner beast. 

27. Cheer for something. I always assumed I’d quit caring about sport when I hung up my high school cleats. I now relish the opportunity to cheer for my wife and cheer for the HOGS–Woo Pig Sooie!

28.  Keep a few friends. You don’t need a thousand friends, just a few really good ones.

29. You lose 100% of the races you don’t start. If you try, you’ll know. The “what-ifs” will haunt you, so you might as well try.

30. Measure. If you don’t determine metrics and measure, its impossible to gauge progress.

31. Have integrity. Without it, what do your really have?

32. Experiment.  “All of life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

33 . Go down the rabbit hole.  Follow a passion, thought, idea, feeling, etc. as far as it can possibly take you. Once you've arrived at this point. Keep digging.  

As a kid, I never understood the point in living past the age of 28. It appeared to me all the good stuff occurred before this age. Now that I’ve successfully surpassed this this mark by 5 years, I realize I didn’t know as much as I thought I did. So, take this post for what it’s worth. Regardless, I’m looking forward to the road ahead and would like to thank anyone reading this that has made my life, well, my life.

CHEERS!

Chris Corbin

 

Taco Del Sol Digital Assets. A never ending process.

I  recently built a new website for Taco Del Sol. As with most digital digital assets today, the framework is nothing special, which is why we're focusing on content creation.The first step included a new MENU. Not powerful from an SEO perspective but a nice design element. Step two focused on the video (below) to create brand continuity with the menu and increase reach.  Step three will.... 

The moral to the story is digital branding is a process. A never ending process.  

Ironman 70.3 Mont Tremblant Race Video

A race video from Linsey’s most recent win at Ironman 70.3 Mont Tremblant. I spent most of the day shooting from my iPhone in 480, so my footage to choose from was limited (e.g. no swim footage). Yes, I still use an iPhone but have upgraded my editing software to Adobe Creative Cloud and spend a bunch of time watching Lynda.com videos. I guess that’s the beauty of the digital world we live in–you can learn anything you want to.