Purple Cow (23 page)

 

Kids, Halloween, candy. Old paradigm. What if kids got books at Halloween instead? Childhood obesity and diabetes are on the rise. Books For Treats’ goal is to shift the emphasis on a “treat” from something that is harmful to something that is helpful. This not-for-profit program encourages people to gather gently read books throughout the year to give to their trick-or-treaters. It’s easy to collect books from library book sales, garage sales, used book stores, and thrift stores. Then offer the ghouls and goblins a choice when they ring your doorbell. Morgan’s Books For Treats group gives out over 4,000 books to trick-or-treaters during San Jose’s retail Halloween events. Their motto is “Feed kids’ minds, not their cavities. Give them brain candy.” Learn how to give your own brain candy and download a free kit at
http://www.BooksForTreats.org
.

 

Tired of giving and receiving the same old business cards? Does plastic just not seem that much of an improvement, and are you worried about metal cards going through the airport?
http://www.meatcards.com
has you covered. Create your own business cards. On beef jerky. Using lasers. Printing your information on meat cards is one way to make yourself memorable, whether they eventually end up in a client’s Rolodex, mouth, or trash bin.

 

JCorps (
jcorps.org
) is an international volunteer organization with no office, no staff, no phone number, and thousands of members from over 170 colleges and 400 companies, operating in the USA, Canada, Israel, and the UK. Largely self-funded and entirely volunteerrun, it served over 21,000 meals last year, cleaned parks, and visited hundreds of children and seniors. In a time of tight budgets, JCorps thrives bootstrapping. Started two years ago with just $300 by Ari Teman, a favorite on NYC’s A-list stand-up comedy circuit, JCorps’s aim is to enable young adults to connect while making a difference. JCorps is exceptionally reliable. Whereas most volunteer groups have a 70% attendance rate, meaning if they promise 20 people to an organization, 14 show up, JCorps’s attendance rate is about 96%. The group harnesses mobile and Web technology to get reminders to volunteers and to screen out unreliable applicants. JCorps is the Wikipedia of volunteer networks, maintaining an open environment and enabling volunteers to create, lead, and improve events. Some add a children’s hospital craft project, others add an international division, and it all happens without red tape and bureaucracy: New JCorps’s divisions are up and running in under two weeks. Extraordinary and extraordinarily fast.

 

Trey McIntyre Project (TMP) dance company made waves in the dance world in 2003 when they debuted to huge critical acclaim at the Vail International Dance Festival. Trey MacIntyre, the founder, has an impressive choreographic pedigree; he has created dances for most of the world’s big-time dance companies. So after that first taste of success, what did TMP do? Locate to the East or West Coast, where dance aficionados abound? Nope. They settled in—wait for it—Boise, Idaho, a beautiful city surrounded by mountains and filled with people who have adopted the TMP dancers as their own. Do they create dances that only dedicated dance audiences will love? Nope. They dance to music from The Beatles, Beck AND Bach. Do they lock themselves in their rehearsal halls and emerge only for formal performances? Nope. They take to the streets, open their rehearsals, and invite conversation from all who want to participate. Do they advance their hip, accessible brand by using traditional marketing tools? Nope. They use videos, podcasts, Facebook, and Web-based media. All this adds up to a company that is not just creating dance; TMP is changing the language of the arts.

 

With the launch of Spoonflower this past winter, quilters, textile artists, wearable art designers, and sewers of all stripes found a novel addition to their “stashes.” Spoonflower launched a unique service that allows customers to upload their own designs for fabric yardage, with an easy-to-use interface and excellent customer support. The company also hosts clever customer “fabric of the week” and contests where site members vote for their choice of a submitted design for availability to other buyers for a limited 6-day period via Etsy. They also have a Flickr group and tweet. The fabrics printed by the company range from the ubercute to bold geometrics to retro redesigns to the occasionally exception work of art—at $18 to $32 a yard, the custom prints are affordable, the turnaround fast.

 

It may seem like a trivial complaint, but living in the Fiji Islands does indeed have a few drawbacks, especially when it comes to enjoying some of the foods I’ve known all my life. It’s the little things I tend to miss most. When Freshbooks (
www.freshbooks.com
), the developers of my company’s invoicing system, blogged about the incredible taste of a newly released Triscuits flavor, it was the last straw for me. I jokingly asked that they not post any reviews about food products that their customers were unable to sample for themselves. A month or so later, I received a package in the mail containing boxes of the new flavor and a handwritten note from them. I remember sitting at my desk completely stunned and excited over the unexpected surprise gift and the wildly friendly customer touch. I always felt Freshbooks was fanatically customer friendly anyway and I’ve always loved the way they run their company. How is it possible to get your customers to adore your company even more? Freshbooks knows the answer.

 

I have been going to “Boing” in Vancouver, Canada, for ten years now. Its real name is not “Boing,” but it’s been referred to as that for so long that no one can remember it being called by its actual title: “Workouts with Jane Ellison.” Yes, I’m talking about a workout class—but it’s so much more. Jane has been teaching these classes four times per week, in the same time slots, at the same location for over thirty years. She has a dedicated following and has created a real community around Boing with just word-of-mouth, long-term consistency and her amazing presence. Many people (aka Boingers) have been attending for more than twenty years, and there are constantly new converts as well. It is an hour-and-a-half-long workout, with four songs’ worth of dancing in the middle of it. She often has to turn people away because the dance studio holds only around forty-five people. It is truly joyful and leaves you feeling fantastic. The amazing thing about Boing is how much the Boingers love it—so much that they attend for many years; they passionately recruit others; and bond emphatically over it. Jane’s creation is an irreplaceable phenomenon.

 

I drove up and ordered 100 kg of firewood. Tim the attendant asked if I wanted a preweighed stack or—the Punter’s Ton. I inquired what the Punter’s Ton was. Leaning towards me, eyes darting at the office, Tim told me in a lowered voice: The yard tractor had a front bucket. After years of dealing firewood, Tim knew exactly what volume comprised 100 kg. While management insisted that he stack blocks on a set of scales then restack them for sale, Tim knew he could thrust the bucket into the main pile, tip out some blocks, drive to a customer’s vehicle, and transfer the wood directly. In so doing, he saved time and effort, gave the customer a strong sense of his expertise, and had fun. And by adding that his margin of error could (or could not) mean a few free blocks, he sealed the deal. Entranced, I asked for a Punter’s Ton. In five minutes flat, Tim made me feel like a colleague, a connoisseur, a co-conspirator, and a risk taker—all for $32.95. This experience had me coming back until the day Tim left and all I could buy were sterile, statistically sound, stacks.

 

http://www.anenglishmaninla.com
is the most unusual company this side of the 15th century. Using highly secret methods to produce the realistic look and feel of his creations, Jeff Cane fashions uncannily accurate historical “forgeries” including marriage certificates, kebullahs, and historical tablets. His work is used by the LA County Museum, Freddie Prinze and Sarah Michelle Gellar in their wedding, Pamela Anderson, and many others. In an age where same is the cry, Jeff truly offers something different—the best historical re-creations you’d love to have in your home around.

 

While cleaning out the closet of his medical practice in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Dr. Bruce Wolf discovered expired medicine samples. Wolf experienced revulsion: he’d been wasting medicine that should have been saving lives. So Wolf acted. First, he started sending 10% of his samples to a clinic. Then he accumulated enough drugs to start a community pharmacy. Then in 2003 he started a nonprofit—Dispensary of Hope, a “network of dispensing sites, sourcing partners and financial partners that assist people without prescription drug coverage.” (
www.dispensaryofhope.org
). By mid-2009 DOH had networked almost 1000 donating physicians, distributed over $20 million worth of drugs, and opened over 20 dispensaries in six states. Today, DOH has a central warehouse, partnerships with pharmaceutical companies that donate unused products, and a mail-order pharmacy. In an America where 40% of the population is uninsured or underinsured, operations like Dispensary of Hope prove how the fusion of love and ingenuity, with a dash of moral outrage, can bring life and hope to a desperate people. May Wolf’s tribe increase.

 

Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC, has taken the Purple Cow to the world of faith! Beginning with an Easter Egg Drop from a HELICOPTER to over 1000 children awaiting in the park below to their “BLESS BACK” Project of GIVING AWAY a week’s offering rather than taking one, they serve as catalysts to the community of faith. Elevation Church has inspired others to do things that create a big buzz (or a big “moooo”!) that makes people pay attention to one of the things that matters most—the life of faith. Beginning with five families willing to move anywhere in America, they staked their claim right in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the Bible Belt and have grown to over 5000 attenders in 3 years. Other church leaders follow as well. One local pastor put his church’s logo on the bottom of shot glasses in a bar. Great ideas come from catalysts who give us freedom and permission to try something new, the kind at which Elevation Church excels!

It was started by a guy named Jim Newton with loans from his customers. It’s a communal garage for a tribe of makers. Built by a maker, with money from makers for other makers in the community. Fantastic.