I shared my green marketing ideas on “Sustainable Storytelling” over the airwaves as a guest on the radio show, “Your Triple Bottom Line.” Show hosts Angelo Fernando and Derrick Mains, CEO of Green Nurture, and I announced the launch of a unique partnership between GreenNurture.com and the Water – Use It Wisely conservation campaign.

We discussed proven ways to engage your employees through sustainable storytelling, coupled with the Green Nurture online platform to encourage behavior change.

Seven storytelling strategies on “Your Triple Bottom Line”

1. The Water – Use It Wisely campaign is based on environmental triggers. What are “environmental triggers,” and how do they work?
   “The importance of triggers in your green marketing”
2. What is the “Three Sunflower” analogy for green marketers in identifying and targeting your audiences when promoting environmental behavior change?
   “How sustainable is your sustainability message?”
3. What motivates people to make a behavior change more: Because it’s good for the environment or because it’s convenient and easy?
   “The surprising story behind what motivates us.”
4. Why is it important to speak to a person’s level of “Greenness” to promote behavior change?
   “How well do you know the ‘greenness’ of your customer?”
5. Why is storytelling so important to changing behavior?
   “Are you a green marketing weirdo trying to change the behavior of normal people?”
6. How do you make water conservation and other eco-actions personal inside your organization?
   “Feeling all green and tingly inside: How to promote your corporate sustainability initiative internally.”
7. How to give your water conservation and environmental initiatives handles?
   “Sustainable green marketing isn’t about creating ad campaigns. It’s about igniting movements.”

Donna DiFrancesco, Water Conservation Specialist for the City of Mesa, AZ, is also featured on the show and covered the operational ways businesses can save water.

Derrick Mains said of the water conservation partnership,

“Water is one of the most overused resources, and it’s costing businesses millions of dollars a year. Thanks to the Water-Use It Wisely campaign over the last ten years, people have become much more water-conscious in their homes. Now it’s time to extend that mentality to the workplace.  This partnership gives GreenNurture an intelligent, effective way to bring important information to our customers about water conservation and adds yet another layer to the Water-Use It Wisely mission.”

You can listen to the show now and call into future shows with questions toll free at 866-536-1100. You can also Tweet your questions to @your3bl.

“Your Triple Bottom Line” is a show that unpacks some of the more complex ideas in sustainability. We bring on some of the leading voices in business who make sense of the social, ecological and the economic threads that runs through business. We get them to put aside their talking points, step out of their corporate speak, and have real conversations with us and you our listeners.

Click on the pic to see how we became one of the first carbon-neutral ad agencies in North America.

The Business Marketing Association just launched a new 30 minute radio series on 1100 KFNX AM. The first show focuses on green marketing and sustainability with park Howell, president of Park&Co, and Derrick Mains from GreenNurture.com, a green solutions company.

Howell explores ways to avoid “Greenwashing” (Not walking your green talk) by creating green marketing about your sustainability efforts that is “Approachable,” “Believable” and “Doable.”

Derrick Mains, CEO of sustainable start-up GreenNurture.com, discusses his new online product that helps organizations become greener and more sustainable within. GreenNurture combines the power of social media with an easy-to-use enterprise software that encourages green conversations and actions by staff members. It’s all about micro-sustainability: coaxing and applauding self-starting green behaviors cubicle by cubicle.

Click here to hear the show.

The Single Level Building with a Thousand Stories

For nearly a decade, our big, red ampersand billiard ball on the side of our building has become a bit of a landmark at the corner of 44th Street and Indian School Road in Phoenix, Arizona.

That’s good. But what we heard from most people who pass through this highly trafficked neighborhood was this:

“Ohhh, you’re an ad agency. I’ve always wondered what you did.”

That’s bad. Especially for, well, an ad agency.

Better brand storytelling in the most obvious place

So we changed that with the simplest of solutions. We added 11 choice words as window decals that describe what we do. The idea is to intrigue passersby to learn more about Park&Co.

The power of a few choice words

Not only do we see people stop and read through all of the words, but we’ve added a new tenant to our creative campus who was lured in by the “energy” expressed by the storytelling nouns. We’ve seen a dramatic uptick in traffic to our website as people and prospects want to learn more about Park&Co. And even the grandmother of our son’s best friend asked what was up with our modifiers.

Tickled by an unexpected benefit

With words like, “Storyteller,” “Composer,” “Poet,” and “Alchemist,” our idea was to beckon the outside world into our story. We didn’t think about our internal audience. Shawn Hardy, who races sharks in his spare time and is our talented art director, wrote a post about the project and makes the point that we are all naturally working harder to live up to these monickers.

It’s amazing how many stories you’ll find in our single-level building.

What’s your story?

Cup of Joe on Us for Our 15th Anniversary from ParkHowell.com on Vimeo.

I don’t care if you’re a venti-double-shot-skinny-hold-the-foam latte, or a tall-drip-with-room, I’d like to buy you a cup of coffee. Just pop in here, today only, and ask for a  “Park&Co.” Our friendly neighborhood baristas will gladly pour you the coffee of your choice on us. And please, let’s not be piggy. Just one cup per person, because we have a limited number of pours on our card. So hurry over and help us celebrate our 15th anniversary.

No one was more surprised than I Saturday night when the American Advertising Federation – Metro Phoenix announced the Ad Person of the Year.

I was a bit of a deer in the headlights during my acceptance speech, so I thought I’d take another shot at it from a chair lift in Telluride, CO.

A “Thank You” from the 2010 Phoenix Ad Person of the Year from ParkHowell.com on Vimeo.

My recognition is simply a reflection of all of the incredibly talented people that work with the Park&Co team, both in the office and as freelancers, as well as the remarkable clients that allow us to do meaningful work on their behalf. For example, the agency was recognized for two other campaigns: Metro Light Rail and INT Technologies.

The award has also come at an interesting time. March 1, 2010 marked the 15th anniversary of Park&Co, and we’ve launched our new website to celebrate the occasion. The site is unusual because we don’t want to just tell you our story, we want to hear yours.

Thank you one and all for this tremendous honor.

Today I’m telling my story at Social Media Arizona. It’s about my early efforts, struggles, and successes with social media strategy for sustainability and green marketing. I’m not whining. I’m learning. This is my right of passage in social media, and I welcome any advice you might have.

I’ve chosen to structure my story as a screenwriter would in pitching a Hollywood producer a movie. This structure comes from Blake Snyder in his screenwriting book, “Save the Cat!” I’ve found you can use his concept of 15 story beats in every great tale for just about anything you want to communicate powerfully.

So grab a cup of coffee, and put your feet up, because I’ve got a doozy for you.

The logline to my story – that one sentence that answers the question, “What is it?” – reads:

In a bid to survive the devastating economy, an optimistic businessman first has to overcome the unrequited love of his new marketing darling – online social media – before his muse will save him.

Opening Image: (Cutout of my head with eyes dreamily peering upward at all the social media logos in a thought cloud; like visions of sugar plumbs dancing in my head. Then the “caching” of dollar signs replace my eyeballs.)

Theme Stated: How you tell your story is more important than where you tell it. (The logos in the above image are replaced with the line, “Once upon a time…” and my face turns to puzzlement as the dollar signs drop from my eyes in a crash.)

The Set-up: Park Howell runs Park&Co, a growing Phoenix agency with a growing client list. In fact, the firm is celebrating its 15^th year in business on March 1. Park’s pretty proud of his team and what they’ve built. He owns his own building, works with 16 wonderful employees, and he and his interior designer wife, Michele, have three lovely kids, each a creative entrepreneur in their own ways. Park&Co is right on track to take over the world. Always fearful of becoming a dinosaur, Park and the agency embraces social media early and begins successfully using elements of it for their clients.

• The agency used iTunes to help its client distribute its training videos worldwide, saving the company more than $250,000 in its first year of the program.
• Park&Co has have given rural Arizonans a voice in Washington D.C. by capturing their stories of needing jobs and broadcasting them through YouTube.
• He has created Ning networks to gather people online for Goodwill and Water Conservation causes

Catalyst, or “Inciting Incident”: Then “Bam!” In October 2008, the world ends as he knew it with the beginning of the global recession. (Picture of ship sailing off the edge of a “flat” world.) The “New normal” was dawning. It was not enough for Park to help his clients weather the storm with decreasing marketing resources. He had to insure the survival of his own agency. Park followed the lead of many captains in the industry, and they all pointed to online social media as more than a temporary lifeboat, but the new marketing world order.

Debate: But can he pull it off? What will it take? Does he launch his own blog or amp up the agency’s online presence? What is his story, his niche, his expertise? Which social media tools, proven or not, will he employ? How will he measure it? What will he measure? What matters? Who cares?

Break into Two (Act 2, the “Love Story”):  Following a Vegas ad agency seminar, and biz dev. gurus introducing Park to the sultry and sensational attributes of online social media, Park falls head-over-heels. He develops his own blog, “A Brighter Shade of Green Marketing,” that focuses on one of the agency’s successful niches: Sustainability.

He takes time to listen to his potential audiences with his new accounts on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, FriendFeed. He monitors Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati. He hosts online polls and posts videos. He participates in webinars, creates a Ning network, and reads social media romance novels like Bernoff’s “Groundswell,” Brogan’s “Trust Agents,” Baer’s “Convince & Convert” blog, and a plethora of novelettes in the form of free eBooks and SlideShare presentations.

Everyone’s a social media expert and he wants to be invited to the dance. He is delighted and surprised when he is asked to speak about social media in a niche within his niche: Water conservation. He researches, and writes, and posts lists, and links, and insights. He comments on other blogs, reaches out to sustainability writers, and Tweets about everything but where he’s having coffee.

Midpoint: Park finds himself in a feverish, but seemingly one-sided courtship with social media. He’s ready to round third base and head for home.  Readers are going to come flooding in. The phone is going to ring off the hook. One person cautions him,

“How are you going to keep this up – working four to six hours per day on social media – when you’re going to be so busy handling all of the new business?”

Great question, he thinks. Then, in a figurative gesture, he puts his hand to his ear, leans forward toward the very computer he’s been banging away at for 10 solid months, and stops for a moment to hear what his effort has earned him in the way of new business.

Click to hear crickets.

Bad Guys Close In: As Park’s doubts about his social media abilities grow, and its relevance as the new marketing beloved, the economy worsens. Not ready to abandon his initial romance, even though her delicate hand seems just out of reach in the way of biz dev reciprocity, he has to reinvent how his agency can remain sustainable in this new environment of more project work, less campaigns, and dwindling budgets.

All is Lost: Park travels East to meet with other agencies for a two-day session on “Best practices.” The more they talk of scheduling tweets, publishing lists because people don’t read but scan, how bloggers game the AdAge Power150, the more Park finds himself repelling from the process.

Dark Night of the Soul: Park returns to Phoenix more confused than ever about his wooing of social media and the unrequited love he has received in the form of zero new business.

Break into Three: With the help of his brilliant team back at the agency, and what he’s learned from the accumulated months of research while pursuing his social media muse, Park arrives at the greatest truth of all:

It’s not where you tell your story, but how well you tell it.

She doesn’t want you to simply show up with flowers. She wants you to freely share your heart and soul. Only then will she give back.

Finale: Park realizes that behind the siren song of online social media lays many virtues that aren’t at first apparent. Online social media loves you back by:

• Making you a better listener
• Honing your writing skills
• Recognizing and capitalizing on trends
• Developing ones self as a more skilled online communicator/marketer
• Building expertise in your chosen niche outside of social media
• Employing your new found knowledge to guide your customers
• Creating more enlightenment to innovation with easy access to thought leaders
• Exercising resiliency and self-discipline in your daily development
• Perfecting presentation abilities
• Enhancing your own leadership skills

And most of all, social media helps you become a better storyteller.

Tomorrow, I will tell Part II of my story. I will share with you compelling stories being told offline and on that make it easy for people to share. These are stories that in many ways are changing the world. And they all have one thing in common…

Google: "I'll raise you a rabbit"

I was blessed with the name Park. It gets attention. No, I’m not Korean. And in some future post, I’ll tell you where it came from.

For now, I thought I’d give you a little more background on the guy behind the name. The following are my responses to the Phoenix Business Journal’s “2 Minutes With” section that just ran.

Does that mean I only have 13 minutes of fame left?

And of course, all of my best lines ended up on the cutting room floor (I guess you can be the judge of that), so I’ve included my entire  interview here.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs just starting out?

I like the famous photographer’s line, “F8 and be there.” You don’t have to be an incredible business mind to be successful, just like you don’t have to be a world renowned photographer to take great pictures.  You just have to show up everyday, give it your all, and keep it simple.

What is one of your business goals for 2009?

We’re going to grow Park&Co by 10 percent this year due to our work in green marketing and sustainability.  We call it “Responsible Marketing,” and the timing couldn’t be better, given the growing economic and environmental sensibilities of the market.

How have you changed your business strategy to reflect current economic conditions?

We took a page out of the survival manual from Arizona Mountain Rescue: “High speed, low drag.” This perfect economic storm is an IDEAL environment for our agency – and our clients – to capture market share that is often more difficult and more expensive to do in bull markets. We are more efficient and nimble than ever with our staff, operations, and bringing campaigns to market. We look for and work with clients that are driven by realistic opportunity and not fear.

What resources did you use to help develop your business and marketing plans?

Fortunately, this cobbler’s kid has shoes, and pretty nice ones too. We rely on our brilliant staff for our own marketing strategy and creative. We also work with outside consultants, like Pete Walsh of Peak Performance Coaching, to test our assumptions and plans.

How do you use technology, i.e., social media, Internet marketing, etc., to promote your business?

Technology and internet marketing is a tactic, not a strategy. We always tie our online digital footprint – Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Pay-per-click campaigns, organic search, Ning groups, etc. – to tangible, in-person marketing so customers can experience us real-time, not just virtually. I also write this blog called “A Brighter Shade of Green Marketing,” at ParkHowell.com. This is a great way for potential clients to get a better understanding of how I, and the agency, approach sustainable, responsible marketing.  You’ll find a lot of free advice there.

How do you recruit and retain quality employees?

We recruit quality employees by a very selective word of mouth and referral program.  We retain them by respecting and appreciating what they contribute to the team.  And we challenge them to do their finest work here; in an accountable environment that promotes their personal and professional growth.

What is a significant goal you achieved in the past 12 months?

We have dramatically increased our online marketing and social media capabilities, and have experienced tremendous results combining this virtual world with real world word of mouth marketing for our clients.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome in growing your business?

Getting out of the way of our talented team. I love rolling up my sleeves and diving into strategy and creative challenges for our clients. But I am surrounded by an insanely talented group of pros, and I need to give them the freedom to do what they do best.

Do you have an exit strategy or a succession plan for when you retire? What is it?

Besides driving my business into the ground through a series of ridiculous and avoidable blunders and waiting for the government to bail me out, I haven’t found a succession plan I like yet.  Too young, I suppose.

Did you ever want to call it quits? If so, why, and what stopped you?

No, I can’t say I ever wanted to call it quits. I don’t have enough dough to retire, and I can’t see myself in a corporate environment. I tend to be a free thinker and like to push our clients beyond their comfort zone to help them grow. These are qualities that often go unappreciated as an employee.  Plus, I can’t color inside the lines very well.  Never have.

What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started your business?

Numbers and Little League coaches often lead to unrealistic expectations. It’s actually impossible to give 110 percent. Ninety percent effort with concerted thought is typically 20 times more than what most businesses offer 60 percent of the time.

How do you market?

We market our traditional and nontraditional advertising services through social media, online marketing, and in-person workshops and presentations. We seek out and ignite the growth of those people, products, services, and businesses that are having a measurable positive impact on our planet.

What mistake have you learned from?

When I started Park&Co in 1995, I tried to be all things to all people. Then we began doing a lot of work in sustainability and cause marketing long before green became cool. This focus is a reflection of the first of our seven operating tenets: “Run a profitable, socially conscious company.” Given the current global economic and ecological meltdown, the market has found us in a big way. Find your niche, and if you don’t, sometimes it finds you.

What’s the best piece of business advice you ever received?

Actually, I have two “Best pieces of business advice” that came from my Dad: “A deal is only good if it’s good for both parties,” and “Make more than you spend.” which is pretty good advice these days.

Do you have a question for me? Please ask in the comments form below, or shoot me a note from my contact form.

The Green Meter captures location information from all of the web/video conference attendees and then calculates their positive impact on the planet and the company’s budget by not having to travel. It calculates:

• Reduced carbon emissions
• Fuel savings

…while pointing out:

• Savings in airfare
• Savings in hotels and meals
• Savings in wasted hours traveling
• Increased productivity

You can experience iLinc’s Green Meter firsthand by participating in the company’s first ever virtual conference called iG.R.E.E.N 2009 on Wednesday, March 18. And it’s FREE!

I’m proud to be one of iLinc’s inaugural presenters for their virtual conference. I will be presenting a sales and marketing session titled: Green Marketing: How to Reduce your Carbon and Hype Footprints, from 4 – 4:45 pm EST. I’ll show you ways to reduce your use of costly physical resources in your advertising and marketing by leverage online and other forms of social media, while also demonstrating how to avoid the green washing trap. You can register for iLinc’s free iG.R.E.E.N. virtual conference here.

Dad’s direction was crystal clear.  “A man and his daughter are coming by in 30 minutes to look at the bike,” he said, staring into the glazed over eyes of an 11-year-old who was still a bit transfixed on Wile-E Coyote’s latest fall from a Monument Valley cliff (you know that was shot in Arizona.).  And then he grabbed me by my shoulders and pulled me a smidge closer with eyes locked trying to pierce my cartoon world, and he said slowly, “We want $14, but we’ll take $11.”

“Right.  Got it.  No problem.”  I said with complete confidence, finally awakening to this great endeavor he had just bestowed upon me.  Money was an important thing in our household, and my parents never missed an opportunity to stress honesty, integrity and fiscal responsibility with us.

He left with two of my older brothers for baseball practice and I returned to the boob tube (his term for TV).  His words resonated in my brain, “We want $14, but we’ll take $11.”

Sure enough, as the Roadrunner ran off safely into the sunset and the first strains of Scooby Doo’s opening music came up following the Coco Puffs commercial, the doorbell rang.  “Hmm, who could that be?” I thought annoyed.  In slow motion, with one eye trained on the TV and half my brain driving my feet, I moved to the back door.  I opened it to find a strange man and girl at our house.  “Can I help you?’  I asked.  “Yes, we’re here to see the bike.” he said.  There, in the breezeway, was the freshly cleaned Schwinn speedster leaning seductively on its kick stand with, I swear, a heavenly glimmer twinkling off it’s chrome handlebars.  At once my world snapped back into focus.  The weight of my sales goal landed squarely upon my small shoulders, like the bank safe falling on Wile-E Coyote’s head.  As the little girl walked over and caressed the seat adoringly, her father turned to me and asked, “Is your Dad home?”  “No,” I said clearing my throat to begin negotiations.  “He has asked me to handle this transaction.”

“Well then, how much for the bike?” he asked.  At that moment I realized my dad hadn’t talked price with the prospective buyer on the phone.  I quickly and deftly sized up the situation.  This guy was flying blind.  I had him right where I wanted him.  His daughter was obviously quite smitten with the two-wheeler, and the only thing between her joy and he being a hero was his wallet.  What an opportunity.  Pops is going to be so proud.  My older brothers will look upon my brilliant salesmanship with respect and admiration.  Mel will revere me as the prodigal horse trader because of the deal I was about to cut.  Once again, the old man’s words rang through my head.  I stepped up and with the cajoling smile of a used car salesman I said, “We want $14, but we’ll take $11.”

My words at first shocked the buyer.  You could see it in his face.  Then an odd thing happened.  His shock ever so subtly turned to delight.  It took the keen eye of a savvy salesman to detect it, but it was there.  Then delight turned to humor, and that’s when it hit me.  I not only gave him our asking price, but had revealed our bottom line as well.  Dang!  The tables had turned, and he knew it.

With a bit of a chuckle he pulled out his wallet. “Tell you what,” he said.  “I’ll give you $12.50 for it.”  In an effort to regain lost ground I leaped at the offer, “Done, done, and done!”  I exclaimed with a handshake.  He loaded his grinning daughter and her new bike into his Town & Country station wagon and drove off safely into the sunset.  Wounded but wiser, I retreated to our family room to retrace the transaction feeling lucky to have gotten the $12.50.

Thirty-two years later I can tell you: What I learned was vastly more rewarding than what I earned pedaling my sister’s blue bike.  Dad laughed and applauded my honesty.  The buyer, who most certainly could have taken advantage of a cocky 11-year-old, had the integrity to meet me half way.  And the transaction epitomized one of Dad’s greatest business morals: “A deal is only good if it’s good for all parties.”

I couldn’t have made a better sale that day.

That’s all folks!