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Reflections on GLS: Stefan
Stefan Speligene • August 31, 2019
Thanks for visiting the blog! This week, we’re sharing snapshots from our team as they reflect on our time at the Global Leadership Summit earlier this month. Keep reading to hear from Stefan.
As always, it was a blessing to bring together our team and some of our clients to experience the amazing speakers at GLS.
Every year, the speakers seem to come from more diverse backgrounds, which is great for us. It keeps us sharp and continues to give us more perspective.
I’m a big Craig Groeschel fan, so it’s hard not to mention his session as a favorite. His talk really hit me hard. He has all these phrases, like “thinking inside the box,” and “bending the curve,” that work so well to cement important reminders in your brain.
He reminded us that sometimes the best thing you can do, especially if you don’t have a huge budget, is create structure and parameters. This allows you to create an impact while still remaining within the budget for a client. It’s all about what you’re trying to accomplish as a team. With thoughtful parameters, you can often do things creatively and still have the same, if not better, impact without spending a fortune or taking six months to accomplish it.
Another thing I love about GLS is how we’re exposed to new minds each year. For me this year, that was Todd Henry with Accidental Creative. Once we get exposed to these people and their thinking, then we go out and find them. Now I’ve listened to a few of Todd Henry’s podcasts, and he’s opened my mind up to some new thinking.
Finally, as a few others have mentioned, Jason Dorsey was a truly impactful speaker. He has a research company focused on generations, and his talk reminded us that you can’t communicate, market or advertise to people through your own lens. You have to understand your audience while respecting and appreciating how they’re different from you.
Overall, this is one of my favorite events with our team every year. It’s a fantastic opportunity to watch people take a break from the day-to-day, recharge, learn and grow.
What we want people to do is grow, but we also understand that we can’t try to implement every single new thing we’ve learned. If we can implement just one concept from that gathering, it could impact us for a year, and that’s what this is all about.
We are excited to announce the recipient of our most recent Food for Thought grant — the Hot Springs Food Pantry, located in Hot Springs, South Dakota. Food for Thought is a fund we created through The Community Foundation to offer grants to organizations that help feed children in our community. This isn’t just about money though. We’re also on the lookout for ways to teach kids about good food, to help them learn to prepare it, and to encourage them to love it as much as we do. We are always looking for organizations in our local communities whose mission aligns with ours and have specific needs we can provide grants for. Because our croux reaches far and wide, “local” doesn’t just mean Tennessee. In this case, the community is local to one of our core team members, Lauren. After moving back to her hometown of Hot Springs, South Dakota to be closer to family, she got involved with the local food pantry and saw a specific need there. The food pantry needed a refrigerator so they could provide more fresh produce and protein to families in the area. They were also seeing an above average need in the community due to rising costs which has depleted some of their funds. The grant received from Food for Thought will go towards these efforts and help provide fresh food for families in the area.
We’re back with another creative croux feature. Normally, these pieces are put together by one of our freelance writers, Annie Van Essen, but this time, we’re spotlighting her!
We celebrated our 10-year anniversary in July 2023, making this our tenth Mardi Gras as a krewe. We are so thankful for the many projects, partnerships, clients and friends who have been a part of our journey so far. The essence of Mardi Gras can be summed up in one lighthearted phrase, “ Laissez les bons temps rouler!” — French, for “Let the good times roll!” We’ve had a lot of good times here at roux over the last decade, and we’re excited for them to keep on rollin’. Bon Mardi Gras and merci beaucoup, friends!
Every January we like to gather as a croux and plan for the year ahead. It serves as a holiday celebration and a strategy session. We look forward to it every year. Over the last few years, we’ve also begun incorporating a “word of the year” practice, where we each choose a word that we will focus on throughout the year.
This year, we decided to take our merry-making to the streets of Nashville to see how well the average passerby could interpret some of our favorite Creole vocab. The results were… entertaining. See for yourself!
Every year, our croux puts together a roundup of our favorite Super Bowl commercials.
This time around, we thought we’d switch it up and ask for submissions of our team’s favorite commercials EVER. Whether from 2023 or 2003, we want to celebrate the advertising magic of Super Bowl Sunday.
Here at roux, we have a wonderful team of creatives supporting us, including photographers, videographers, writers, and designers.
Today, we’re excited to introduce you to Kyle Sorvick, one of the talented graphic designers we work with as part of our extended croux.
We all look forward to receiving Christmas greetings from friends and loved ones, whether it’s a social media post or a physical card to display in our house or hang on the fridge. But when it comes to company Christmas cards, corporate greetings can sometimes fall a bit flat. We love when a company spices things up and sends a message that’s genuine and fun. Videos can also be a more effective and affordable option for a company, when you consider the reach made possible with email and social media, and the savings on printing and postage. Averitt and JetRight are two local companies that knock it out of the park every year when it comes to their video Christmas cards. Whether they choose to be lighthearted and silly or share a heartwarming message, watching their videos shows you the real people and spirit behind the companies. Check them out below!