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Episode 9: Themestorming
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From creative brief, to group brainstorm, to presentations to the client team and beyond, the Libretto team are experts when it comes to naming fundraising campaigns, initiatives, and organizations. In this episode, Ian, Madison, and Tiffany talk about the creative process of "Themestorming" and the joys and challenges this facet of our work presents.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Neal Kane's thoughts on Naming: Part 1, Part 2
- Libretto's Names and Themes
- The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll
- The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
- PicklePlay.com (referenced as Pickleballers.com in the episode)
- Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
Hosted by Ian Sutherland, Madison Hunt, and Tiffany Carlson
Produced and Edited by Tiffany Carlson
Music by Coma-Media, via Pixabay
© 2025 Libretto. All Rights Reserved.
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Transcript
Introduction to Well Put Podcast
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome to Well Put, a podcast about communications for mission-driven organizations from libretto. My name is Madison Hunt. And I'm Tiffany Carlson. And I'm Ian Sutherland.
Creative Brainstorming at Libretto
00:00:24
Speaker
today we're going to discuss how Libretto brainstorms names and themes for our clients.
00:00:30
Speaker
This is an extremely creative and exciting part of our process. And it's always a lot of fun when we have an engagement where there's naming involved, whether that's for a campaign theme or whether that's a new institutional name.
00:00:44
Speaker
It's a chance for all of us to come together, put our thinking caps on and brainstorm some very interesting ideas. Neil has actually written ah two articles that just went out in our newsletter about his perspective on theme storming. So this is a ah very relevant topic for us at this time.
00:01:05
Speaker
Maybe to start, ah Madison and Tiffany, we can chat about just your overall process for how you come up with ideas. I know I have my own process, ah but when you come to that first name storming session where all of us gather together, what sort of preparation do you do before that meeting to come up with some of the ideas that you present?
00:01:27
Speaker
I guess um usually we're given a creative brief before um every theme storming. um And that sort of helps me build off of or come up with some of the ideas.
00:01:40
Speaker
And I guess going off of that, you know, I do my own individual research. And usually most of the time I get my names from you know, going for walks or listening to music.
00:01:53
Speaker
um Generally, it gets my creative feels going because normally it takes me rather a long time to come up with names that sort of relate to
Importance of Client Reception in Naming
00:02:05
Speaker
the campaign. But I think most of all, um when it comes to the creative briefs that sort of bridges the gaps to what I'm trying to create. Because when I think of names in general, when I think of people who are going to be saying the names out loud or the donors who are going to have to sort of market these names,
00:02:25
Speaker
I want to put myself in the position where they're going to have to say these things or they're going to have to talk to these people about, you know, what they want this campaign or how they're going to bring it to life. So I think that's where I start from.
00:02:42
Speaker
Granted, some of the names that I come up with aren't necessarily the best, but I think that's probably like the starting point. Yeah. What about you, Tiffany?
00:02:54
Speaker
Well, it's funny that you say um that some of them aren't the best because one of my favorite parts about the way we do theme storming is since it is just an internal group of us first um and we're not you know sharing our first ideas with the client, we can be really out there with some of what we suggest as an option. And you I really appreciate how sometimes the really out there oddball things can actually lead to like a candidate that we show the client if it is not itself one that actually makes it through.
00:03:28
Speaker
um But in terms of my brainstorming, I mean, for me, it's a really interesting exercise too, because um in my role as producer, I'm not actually creating much content for our clients. It's actually the only sort of creative piece of libretto's work that I really tend to have a hand in. I'm more of the logistical type ah role in the company. So for me, it's extra fun because, you know, I have a background in, you know, creative things.
Unique Brainstorming Approaches
00:04:03
Speaker
Like I'm a crafter, I was an English major, and part of that was creative writing.
00:04:08
Speaker
Um, And so for me personally, it's a really fun change from what I'm usually doing. And the way that I come up with ideas is I actually will read through the creative brief and I'll write down like words or ideas that jump out at me.
00:04:22
Speaker
And then i will just kind of riff on that. And um sometimes depending on how stuck I'm feeling, i will actually talk to my husband too and be like,
00:04:33
Speaker
What would you do? Because he is not so much a creative person as more of the logical type person. So I get an interesting perspective hearing what he thinks as well.
00:04:46
Speaker
So that's typically how I brainstorm. But um it's really interesting to hear how you both do as well, because you are also more involved in the other creative aspects of what libretto does.
00:05:00
Speaker
um But I got a little ahead of myself there, Ian. What about you? How do you come up with ideas for these? Well, I love your point, Tiffany, about how that first... creative brainstorm, you can really go a little bit out there. and And one thing that Neil often likes to say about libretto is that we take our clients to the edge of their comfort zone and then slightly beyond it. So I think it's really important in that first creative brainstorm to explore ideas that are a little bit more out of left field.
00:05:28
Speaker
And then it becomes a bit of a winnowing
Collaborative Brainstorming Dynamics
00:05:30
Speaker
process. We'll then usually have a follow-up brainstorm, um at which point we can solidify a list of final candidates that we can then share with the client. But I think some of the most interesting ideas come out of that first brainstorm because as Madison mentioned, we have that creative brief that's developed internally for folks to look through, get ideas from.
00:05:49
Speaker
Tiffany, I share ah your process of underlying some phrases or ideas. And then Madison, what I'll typically do is take a walk or maybe honestly, if like I'm on the bike and I'm commuting to and from the office here in Brooklyn,
00:06:06
Speaker
Maybe it's the wheels in motion. Maybe it's just being in transit. You start to see those words in your head and all of a sudden, wait a minute, now that I'm now that i'm flying through traffic, I have this great idea.
00:06:17
Speaker
And then you get to the office, you write it down. um So I share both of your ah processes in, I think in in in different ways. ah But i think it's I think it's a really interesting point, Tiffany, about that creative process.
00:06:32
Speaker
wildly creative first ah first brainstorm. And then another key piece of that that i'd I'd like to hear from both of you about is kind of how we respond to each other in the moment. Like when Madison, when you come in with an idea, and I think you come in with phenomenal ideas, we've been lucky enough to do a couple of um creative brainstorms recently because we have two two clients um that at the moment are working on an upcoming campaign name.
00:06:57
Speaker
And I think for me, it's really interesting when I have these ideas and I'll have these rationales behind them that I'll present them in such a way. It's really fun to hear from others and go, oh man, I wish I thought of that. Or when I see the word, I'm like, oh, I don't know if I see it. But then in the rationales, I... i can kind of see the whole picture and I can see, wow, I think that would really resonate with the client and with the donor base that they're trying to motivate or with their audience that they're trying to engage.
00:07:26
Speaker
But how does how does that work for both of you when when you see others share their ideas? And can you talk maybe a little bit about how we winnow the list down in our voting process?
00:07:37
Speaker
Yeah. Well, to your first point about like responding to other people's ideas, one thing that I'll do, especially if I'm feeling stuck, is so when we all come up with ideas, we put them into one shared Google document so we can see if other people have brainstormed to come up with ideas first, we'll be able to see that list.
00:07:55
Speaker
And so sometimes, too, I'll see that list and think, that's interesting, what about this? And it's like a slight shift or like using one of the words or it like prompts an idea on my end.
00:08:09
Speaker
And so- we can kind of see that evolution of ideas. And it happens also throughout the session too, which is really cool. Like we'll come in each of us with a list and then we'll end up adding to that list as we talk through it too, which I really, i really love that part of it too, because you can like riff off of each other and it's a very like live brainstorming as well as, you know, each of our individual brainstorming before the The theme storms.
00:08:38
Speaker
The other thing that I find really interesting is we can respond in real time to even hearing the rationale and it's like, oh, I didn't think of it that way. i see the play on words now where I hear the double meaning.
00:08:50
Speaker
um But also, you know, having been at libretto a shorter time than quite a few others who do this theme storming is sometimes we'll throw out ideas and they're like, that was actually the campaign for this client six years ago.
Voting and Theme Selection Process
00:09:04
Speaker
he's like, it's an idea so good, we brought it up again.
00:09:08
Speaker
but ah Madison, what about you? Yeah, just to go off that point, I've come up with a couple of campaign names that have already been used. And I didn't I didn't realize it. But yeah, I think I love the collaboration behind it just being able to be on call with you guys and having you know listing out you know my ideas but then not realizing that the names that I think you know aren't as strong but then having you guys defend them or having um some of ah your ideas bring it more to life than I thought you know I think that was the collaboration behind it you know it
00:09:50
Speaker
it helps develop the ideas better. And I think, you know, when we are all there together, like building off of each other's ideas, I think it also helps um bring other potential ideas. You know, we have, what is it that we call it? Like a basket of ideas that sometimes like a parking lot of ideas, yeah you know, let's say like, I'll have one word,
00:10:14
Speaker
in like my phrase that someone wants to use and they'll put it the parking lot. And then, you know, the next day when we have um another theme storm, they'll use that word and build off of it. I think that is um something that, you know, helps us in,
00:10:29
Speaker
this collaboration. I think it's a fun process. I think it's also that we're able to, you know, work together creatively that sometimes that we're not always able to do, you know, like Tiffany, I don't get to work with you creatively in that way. So that's fun too. And, you know, just being able to do that together is also really fun. i think...
00:10:49
Speaker
you know, with the parking lot, it also brings new ideas for other campaigns. So like you said before, um it may not work for this campaign, but later down the line will work for another one.
00:11:02
Speaker
I was just going to say, I'd i'd like your, um the point you make about it's a chance for us to collaborate in ways we may not all collaborate. You know, for example, some of us are working on different projects than others.
00:11:13
Speaker
ah Tiffany may be more focused in on production and project management. And it's it's always really fascinating for me to hear, Tiffany, you're... team candidates and and the way you present them, i I really enjoy just hearing kind of the spectrum of ideas that come in.
00:11:30
Speaker
um a point I wanted to make too is that there's also, and this is new for us, there's sort of a um I don't want to say anti-collaborative, but a part of our process now, ah because we focus so much on the client that at the end at the end of the day, all of these ideas are in service to the client and either the campaign or the institution that they're trying to name.
00:11:52
Speaker
um We've started to do a new voting process. And Tiffany, I want do that a little bit, because I think that's a very important ah evolution of our of our process.
00:12:03
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. So when I started at Libretto, when we would do theme storms, we'd throw all the ideas out there in the same shared Google Doc, and then we'd vote on them. And we would just put a little asterisk next to them. And you know once all the voting was done, i would go through and ah Google them to see if there were any conflicts and I can touch more on that in a little bit.
00:12:25
Speaker
But we had this thought of like, is seeing a bunch of asterisks by one influencing other people to also vote for that? And is there another way that we could approach voting?
00:12:36
Speaker
So actually now what people do is we still have the list. And what I'll do is I will have everybody email me individually and just tell me which ones that they like. Then I will go through and compile all the votes together.
00:12:50
Speaker
and see what candidates emerge as you know popular among the group, viable candidates, however you want to phrase it. And I will note that not every you know candidate that gets votes from everybody necessarily makes it to the client for one reason or another, either you know it was a past campaign or there's a big conflict when you Google it.
Client Presentation Preparation
00:13:12
Speaker
um And it's really interesting to me to to kind of see We do have a lot more options now that will get one or two votes versus four or five. But it's also cool to see that even when we're voting blind, basically, we're private voting,
00:13:29
Speaker
we still end up most of the time we did end up with unanimous votes still. So there are still themes that emerge in this voting process where it's like everyone in the group felt energy behind this and it's worth exploring further. And it's been really fun to kind of experiment with that. That's been newer with these more recent ah campaigns that we've been working on.
00:13:52
Speaker
um But it sounds like we're going to do it going forward. And, um, I don't know, what a does it feel any different from your side of the the process, Ian and Madison? like What do you think it? Yeah, Madison, curious to hear your thoughts on that and I can follow up.
00:14:08
Speaker
I don't know, I guess I would need your opinion first, Ian, because I feel like the difference in voting for me based off of you know I've only been here for a couple of years, so maybe like your perspective is a little different since you've been here longer.
00:14:24
Speaker
Totally. No, i i really like it. And I like it um primarily because I think it serves the client even better than it than it has in the past. And I just want to I'm going to give a bit of context here, but we spoke earlier about the creative brief.
00:14:39
Speaker
And I think it's important to remind listeners that our theme process is kind of as fun and creative as it sounds and is, is ultimately ah in service to clients that are trying to raise, in some cases, many, many millions of dollars or even billions of dollars. So a lot of work goes into the run up of the eventual theme reveal.
00:15:01
Speaker
There's a lot of discovery involved where we speak with stakeholders throughout the organization. That then informs a findings document, which then informs a campaign brief, this creative brief that Madison and Tiffany spoke to earlier, which is quite robust. And it's from that that all of us can look through the sort of thematic conceptual elements that have been reinforced throughout our discovery and our conversations with the client team.
00:15:29
Speaker
And then we can go into go off into our own sort of creative spaces and come up with these these ideas. And um I think by voting anonymously,
00:15:41
Speaker
It's kind of it's there's a pureness to that, that it's we're not um we're, of course, trying to influence each other in those first and second creative brainstorms. But when it comes to the winnowing process and the list that we show ah to the client and to the ultimate decision makers.
00:15:58
Speaker
that candidate needs to stand on its own. And I think if there is a chance that there could be swaying of opinions based on seeing um the amount of votes a particular candidate has gotten, I think it only can help if we make the process as pure as possible. And to Tiffany's point, what's very interesting is oftentimes we're in pretty good alignment when it comes to a front runner candidate.
00:16:24
Speaker
But again, that kind of the proof is in the pudding, right? I think that's proof that it works. So I am, I am strongly in favor, uh, of it And I think, if anything, on sort of my last point about it, is it kind of puts even more pressure on us to make the case at the in the first and second ah creative brainstorms.
00:16:42
Speaker
When you present the rationale for the candidate you would like to advance to the next stage and eventually to the client stage, you really have to bring your A game because... There's going to be nothing after you speak to it ah that can sway anybody's opinion once that final list is in Tiffany's hands and we're all voting anonymously.
00:17:02
Speaker
So I really do love it. And i um I've been in a lot of these creative brainstorms. And quite frankly, I think the last um two or three that we've had as a group of some have been some of the best we've ever had. We've just had some really great rationales, some really great...
00:17:18
Speaker
um themes come out of it. and And our clients seem to seem to agree. i do want to mention something. When we talk about the group that does this brainstorming too, I think it's really important to note that it's not just the current libretto employees. There are um a few former librettists who ah come back for naming sessions as they're able.
00:17:43
Speaker
um They have their own stuff going on now, obviously. But That I think also adds to the quality of the candidates we get, the variety of the candidates that we have to choose from to present to the client. And I think that's a really fun and really unique part of this process as well that, um, in libretto's approach is it's not just the faces you see on the website, you know, it's more of us with all different kinds of background and, um,
00:18:12
Speaker
That's part of what also makes it so enjoyable, in my opinion, is just kind of seeing these people again, you know, after how many months ah since the last brainstorm or since they were able to participate and getting their perspectives on all of this as well.
00:18:28
Speaker
It's a great point, Tiffany, because as you as you mentioned, the more um experience that we can draw from four folks who have done this work previously or are engaged in the kind of work we do currently, the better I think the outcome is for the ultimate ah presentation to the client and to the, in most cases, the board of trustees ah before an eventual um candidate is chosen.
Presenting Themes to Clients
00:18:52
Speaker
To that end, Madison, I was wondering if you could speak to what goes into those presentations um So yeah, just going into the putting the presentation together. So I guess, you know, after the finalists are chosen, and after, you know, we kind of start with a big picture. So what we want the core message or the takeaway. So like, we go into like the preamble. So this sets up what the names are. so a quote, an anecdote, a rhetorical question to immediately engage like the audience.
00:19:23
Speaker
So we put that in the presentation. So it's a clear connection to the theme. So like, why this? Or like, why does this work with the campaign? um It's a preview of what's to come. So like a roadmap to the key points that the campaign is going to cover with this theme storm.
00:19:40
Speaker
Um, and I guess it's more of, you know, like the rationale. So like why this name matters to this campaign specifically, the relevance of it, the importance of it. So it considers what we're trying to achieve with this campaign, um, how we can bring awareness to it, to persuade, you know, our audience and to inspire.
00:20:00
Speaker
I want to say like going into it, I think, you know, how does this thing connect to their experiences, you know, their values or their needs? I think when we use these sort of examples or like these preambles, I think that's when we sort of like what we cater to in these presentations when we talk to these um these donors and these people um when it comes to these campaign theme names. Like what do we want to tell them about this name and why does this matter to them specifically? So it's sort of like, I don't want to say a pitch, but that's sort of the idea
00:20:37
Speaker
um but more of like in an emotional context, if that makes sense. Yeah, you put it you put it well, Madison. think Neil often calls this part of our process the most mad men-esque conversation Yeah, he uses that. Part of libretto's work because it is kind of like a pitch for this eventual campaign theme.
00:20:58
Speaker
And there is this preamble of language that you just described that is very emotional and very ah meant to stir strong feelings for the institution that's meant to appeal to all audiences that we're trying to encourage to in some cases, donate or to participate um in this in this campaign. And I think that really sets up for an audience of usually it's you know to the client team that we'll present to, and then there's eventually to the board of trustees who will then finalize whatever that candidate finally is.
00:21:35
Speaker
ah there's there's really a moment of anticipation that we build into these presentations. So we walk folks through our process, which I think we've we've spoken through between the three of us already, have this preamble language ah that situates anticipation for the eventual campaign theme reveal.
00:21:53
Speaker
And then we'll show the theme sort of on a big slide or in a big presentation. and allow it to sort of wash over the audience and then speak to it and help folks see why this could be the rallying cry for ah campaign or for the institution or for both. It's it's a lot of pressure, obviously, because this is a this is going to be the rallying cry and this is going to hopefully encourage a lot of people to to donate and to participate in this campaign.
00:22:29
Speaker
One thing I just wanted to mention too, as I kind of alluded to it earlier, is these are all vetted at this point when they're being shared with the client. part of After I collect all the votes and after you know we've done our sessions, the front runners get a pretty thorough Google search done on them.
00:22:46
Speaker
Are there other campaigns or other organizations using these campaign themes already? Are these you know names of organizations that are in the same geographic area? When we're looking at naming a space,
00:22:59
Speaker
or renaming an organization. you know We look at, does one exist by this name and things like that. And so we also make sure that by the time that we're sharing these ideas with the client and really you know getting energy and movement behind one or two candidates, that they're not gonna pick one and then come to find out, hey, there's a huge copyright violation here, we can't actually do this.
00:23:21
Speaker
like we We cover our bases before it gets to the point of falling in love with a theme. It's key point, Tiffany. Yeah, a lot of work goes into making sure that the final candidate has been vetted before it's revealed.
00:23:33
Speaker
Another point I just wanted to speak to, to sort of the behind the scenes work that goes on, um is that there's usually a lot of lead up socialization before a finalist is revealed.
00:23:45
Speaker
We have our internal brainstorm as we've spoken to. We'll share a longer list, maybe 10 to 12 candidates with the client team. Usually those are folks in the communications and marketing team or on the development team for an organization.
00:23:58
Speaker
From that list, we'll winnow it down to perhaps three to five candidates. And from there, we'll go maybe to the organization's president, president executive leadership. Maybe we'll speak to i section of the board that's particularly focused on the campaign, like a campaign cabinet, and socialize those three to five until we settle on one.
00:24:20
Speaker
And when we have that finalist, then we can go to the full board or to whoever the final decision maker is and make the pitch for that theme. So between all of what we've spoken to in terms of vetting and brainstorming and winnowing the list down, there's a lot of sort of behind the scenes conversations that are happening that are really crucial to socializing the theme, making sure everybody's voice is heard, making sure input is taken in.
00:24:46
Speaker
um And I think it just speaks to probably one of the reasons why we're one of the few firms who's done so many campaign
Impact of Campaign Themes
00:24:54
Speaker
themes. And we certainly have a lot of institutions and organizations that have worked with us when it comes to producing this rallying cry for further campaign.
00:25:16
Speaker
Have either of you ever had um a situation where you wanted ah campaign name be chosen, but it hasn't? Or have you ever rallied behind one that you've wanted to be chosen, but hasn't been chosen?
00:25:30
Speaker
All the time. All the time. It's such a great question, Madison. Yeah. it's um I mean, for me, it's usually earlier in the process where we'll be doing the theme storming and the voting. And I will be honest, there's a couple times where I look at what did and didn't get votes and I'm like, oh, I wish that one had gotten more votes. And it's not even necessarily a candidate I came up with. I think all of you bring some really awesome ideas to the theme storm.
00:25:58
Speaker
But that's usually the stage where I see it more or I feel it more because I'm never the one presenting these to a client, for example, where I'm just like, oh, I feel like that one's a real winner.
00:26:09
Speaker
And then it just doesn't make it to the client or to the final round. um But you two as folks who have been you know more involved in the actual pitching to the clients, I'm i'm interested to hear your your thoughts.
00:26:26
Speaker
Definitely. Well, I can speak to i I know that feeling, Tiffany, of early on when a candidate doesn't make it past the first or second round and going, oh, you know and I will admit to having an ego. Of course, I i have front runners that I would like to advance beyond a certain stage. But um in one instance, um I had a candidate that I had come up with that I felt very strongly about, and it made it through the internal theme storming, made it through that presentation with the client team, where the folks in development and the communications and marketing team felt, oh yeah, this is a good one to include when you speak to our president.
00:27:04
Speaker
And then in that conversation with the president, We went through about four to five themes. There was one that that president felt very strongly about. And the one that I had come up with was sort of dismissed with a, well, that would never work. But I like the idea.
00:27:19
Speaker
And to me, it's really it's important because it's not about our ideas. It's not so much about the strong association we have with one of ours idea.
00:27:29
Speaker
It's about will this be successful for us? this organization. And in this case, we had a really good theme that fit ah what the client was looking for and what the leadership of this organization was looking for.
00:27:41
Speaker
And that's to have succeeded, I suppose. Like that was really what was important. And a lot of work went into getting to that point. And if, you know, the theme I came up with was ah not necessarily part of that formula. It still maybe made ah it easier to decide on the one that did end up winning. So I think i think it's ah you know it's important to acknowledge we're human. We we want um certain candidates over others sometimes.
00:28:05
Speaker
But at the end of the day, it's it's the client that we're serving. And I think we do a really good job as a team kind of motivating each other that it's, don't take too Personally, if, you know, for whatever reason, your candidate doesn't move past a certain um yeah you know phase. But Madison, what about you? Have you ever been surprised by a final decision?
00:28:28
Speaker
um Actually, so I just started at Libretto. And I think it was my first um theme storm. And we were coming up with names for a campaign.
00:28:41
Speaker
And mine was chosen. And we had gotten through... um I want to say both rounds, we had presented to the organization. we had gone through the marketing team and they had chosen my name.
00:28:58
Speaker
And it was to the point where I think they had chosen it, but then at the last second, they changed the words around.
00:29:09
Speaker
And and i was like... Well, least they technically did choose it, but technically didn't. So I was like gratified in it, but it was still exciting just because it was like my first theme storm. And I was so excited to just be a part of that process because, you know, seeing it from the outside in, I didn't even know that people could name campaigns. I thought that was something that an organization did. I didn't know that was someone else's responsibility. So to be able to be a part of that process was something that,
00:29:40
Speaker
I wasn't even aware someone else could do. So, but even, you know, just working with the team, like with libretto's team and with the organization's team, being able to understand how that process worked was also really, really cool.
00:29:55
Speaker
um And seeing, you know, even from then till now, how that's evolved and developed and working with different campaign themed names, I thought, I mean, I'm still astonished to this day of how many we've come up with in the last couple years. So.
00:30:11
Speaker
it's It's a pretty cool line of work. it's ah it yeah really And it's and it's very inspiring, I think, to see how these themes live out in the real world. Every now and yet I've been lucky enough to see it on a billboard or in a piece in the news. That's such a cool part of it.
00:30:28
Speaker
Oh my
Conclusion and Further Exploration
00:30:29
Speaker
gosh. Yeah. This is, you know, not only is this, it's not like it's a slick marketing slogan. This is being this is inspiring donors to make major gifts, you multimillion dollar gifts. And just ah another point I'd like to make and a point I think we always make in our presentations is that a ah campaign theme, it's kind of like the prow of a ship. It's the conversation starter.
00:30:51
Speaker
It's the entry point into the fundraising effort. And it's, well, it can encompass every element of an organization's mission or every element of of of that fundraising's, you know initiatives, priorities, et cetera.
00:31:03
Speaker
It is a very, very important part of that rallying cry to donors. And it to Madison's point, it really is exciting to be part of that and to work with the amazing clients that we work with. Yeah, absolutely.
00:31:14
Speaker
Well, thank you both. This has been a really interesting discussion and it's fascinating to hear your own processes when it comes to our internal theme storms and just your thoughts on how the process at Libretto has sort of evolved over the last couple of years.
00:31:28
Speaker
I want to mention again that Neil Cain, our founder and president, has actually written two fascinating articles that have appeared in our newsletter on this very subject. I encourage our listeners to read them if they haven't read them already.
Hosts Share Personal Interests
00:31:54
Speaker
Now we're going to jump into our what are you loving segment. I'm going to toss that over to Tiffany first to start us off. Yeah, so what I've been loving lately, um aside from the nice weather that we seem to have started getting in March out here in Minnesota, um i have actually been getting back into bullet journaling, um which should probably not come as a surprise if you know I'm a producer and the organization type stuff I do.
00:32:23
Speaker
um But it's a hobby that I actually took up Prior to the pandemic, dropped it during the pandemic because I was at home. I didn't need something to keep track of what am i what's my schedule every day. you know I wasn't going anywhere.
00:32:36
Speaker
um But I've been using it to keep track of things now, all the different to-dos that I have during the week. My to-do list is usually pretty long. What I've really been enjoying about it is the creativity aspect of it. So I mentioned earlier, i you know I craft. I also like to doodle and draw and things like that. And so I've been able to kind of incorporate creative things like that into the way that I stay organized during my week. And so I've really been enjoying that and getting back into it. And I know it's kind of like a vague description of it, but really it's just, you know,
00:33:14
Speaker
I make to-do lists, but they're really artistic and pretty. And it it helps me get through my day-to-day tasks and also keep those creative juices flowing when we maybe are not doing theme storms.
00:33:27
Speaker
So that's what I've been loving lately is bullet journaling. Tiffany, I have to just very quickly mention, um because you are the queen of productivity and checklists and making sure operate efficiently.
00:33:42
Speaker
But it's true. And I read um last year, i read a book, which maybe you've heard about, that did the Checklist Manifesto, which is written by- I've heard it. I've not read it though.
00:33:53
Speaker
Yeah. so great It's a great read. But just to that, the artistry and creativity of a to-do list, even when folks may not see the artistry and creativity of a to-do list and how- yeah important and effective it is, i would humbly recommend that book. All right. I will add it to my list.
00:34:08
Speaker
Thank you. And you both are way too kind. i will I will toss the question over to Madison then of what are you loving lately? What am I loving lately?
00:34:19
Speaker
The only thing keeping me sane right now is probably pickleball. um I have been needing a extracurricular activity that doesn't involve sitting in front of my television screen.
00:34:31
Speaker
So I have decided to pick up a sport that isn't soccer. So I decided to try pickleball. um i used to play ping pong with my brother and we decided to transfer those skills over and a bunch of my family decided to play with me. So now we're doing that every other day and we are going to try to play in a league.
00:34:58
Speaker
Fingers crossed that goes well. That's cool. Currently I have a pickleball injury. My wrist is- Oh no. Oh, Yes, but I am still going to play later on today.
00:35:10
Speaker
but pickleball has been just something to do to get outside with this warm weather that hopefully stays a put, um especially in the springtime. But there's been a lot of leagues that have been coming up in the last couple months. So hopefully we can join one in this next couple months and hopefully throughout the rest of the summer.
00:35:31
Speaker
so where do you and Where do you play, Madison? Are there courts by you? do you just set something up impromptu? Yeah, so there's actually a website called pickleballers.com.
00:35:42
Speaker
And there's um it tells you what pickleball courts are around you locally. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, there's a pickleball court.
00:35:53
Speaker
um It's actually called Pickle Rage. So you can go there for like $14 a day, play for like three hours. um And we used to go there when it was like cold outside and there was a bunch of people there. They're super nice.
00:36:06
Speaker
um But since it's getting sunny outside, we're going to play outside today. So we'll see how that goes. That's really cool. Yeah, I know pickleball has been having a having a moment. We've had ah out here probably three or four like huge pickleball centers open up where they just got they've got courts that you can rent out. And it sounds like that's what you did over the winter, but yeah that's really cool.
00:36:30
Speaker
So you play with your family? do you have friends that join you too? or Yeah. So a couple of my friends decided to join as well. they you know they i i want to say I posted on Instagram a couple times and they said, what are you doing? And I said, I've been playing pickleball. And they said, since when? And I said, the last couple of months. And they said, hmm.
00:36:52
Speaker
is it Is it fun? And I said, I seem to like it, so they are going to join. So we'll see how it goes. And hopefully we'll join like a club team soon. um But there's like a league where you can play pickleball and then they also have like a pickleball and like you can ah bar hop too.
00:37:12
Speaker
It's weird. So we'll see how that goes as well. I don't think it's a good combination though. <unk> Probably not. yeah um But Ian, what are you liking or what are you loving?
00:37:26
Speaker
i just finished a book called Barbarian Days, which is a memoir of ah a surfer and a reporter. um He's in his seventies now, a guy named William Finnegan.
00:37:42
Speaker
But it's a recollection of his childhood through his young adult years of growing up in California and Hawaii, where he fell in love with surfing.
00:37:54
Speaker
And then sort of this five to seven year odyssey he took where he traveled with a friend of his um through Tahiti, all the way down to the Australian coasts, and then back again through ah Southeast Asia. And and it was...
00:38:10
Speaker
I think because I've lived most of my life in cities and the author has a style of humor and and I assume it's just because he's a good writer. He reminds me of a lot of key elements of my young adult years.
00:38:30
Speaker
I really gravitated towards towards the book and I think especially his discussion of male friendship. i One of the you know one of foundational memories of my life is going on a road trip across the country with my good friend who was my roommate at the time.
00:38:46
Speaker
And ah it was a a very sweet ending because the book concludes and he's in his late 60s and he's living in New York City, which is where I live now in Brooklyn and going out to surf throughout the winters in Long Beach, which is where my girlfriend and I and a lot of friends spend our weekends during the summer.
00:39:07
Speaker
It's a beach about a half hour by the Long Island Rail from where I live. And yeah, it it was one of those books that a friend of mine, actually the friend I described earlier who I'd taken the road trip ah with back in my college years, he was reading it over the summer.
00:39:22
Speaker
And it looked just it looked like a very kind of light travelogue reading sort of book. And it it really, really moved me. And I've recommended it to my my family and a lot of friends since.
00:39:35
Speaker
But it's a book I've been thinking a lot about ah just this past winter. So that's that's been my that's been that's what I've been loving. Do you know what part of Hawaii? He was outside of Honolulu, Madison. I know that much. And i think he moved around quite a bit.
00:39:52
Speaker
I'm forgetting where the really large waves are. There's a section of the island and I can't remember the name of it, but he had spent some of his teenage years just kind of camping out in that particular area. I think it's where they do some of the pro surfing events now ah with just these enormous swells they get in the winter.
Podcast Wrap-Up and Invitation
00:40:12
Speaker
Well, thanks for the great conversation, you guys. This has been Well Put, a libretto podcast. I'm Madison Hunt. And I'm Ian Sutherland. And I'm Tiffany Carlson. If you want to learn more about libretto and what we do, check out libretto-inc.com.
00:40:28
Speaker
Well put.
00:40:31
Speaker
Perfect. Okay.