I finally made some time this past week to (very slightly) catch up on some reading (being under the weather and somewhat captive to the couch helped, too) and stumbled upon two articles from different magazines that inspired me enough to rise and return to life.

As a longtime David Bowie fan (he’s in my top five list), I couldn’t wait to read “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust: How David Bowie Changed the World” in the February 2, 2012, issue of Rolling Stone magazine. This article, by Mikal Gilmore, chronicles Bowie’s rise from unknown pop singer to androgynous glam-rock god and beyond. It’s an interesting, if somewhat meandering, look at how Bowie created various personas to distance himself from the mental illnesses that ran in his family, or so the author claims.

David Bowie is clearly an accomplished musician and songwriter as well as a complex person who has been dubbed a “chameleon” many, many times. As I was reading the piece, however, I couldn’t help seeing Bowie as an inspiring master of reinvention. Of new chapters. Of soaking up everything he learned from people he met to create a new and improved David. A very changed David, in many cases.

And who of us hasn’t either done that, or dreamed of doing that? Perhaps not on as big a scale as David Bowie, but big enough for our stories to be changed in some way.

Still musing about the Bowie article, I picked up another magazine from the ever-growing pile; this time, the February, 2012, issue of O: The Oprah Magazine (hey, I like this magazine!). After flipping through the pages and catching up with my favorite columnists, I came across a feature titled “You…in six words.” This feature spread was a collection of six-word personal stories, inspired by the “Six-Word Memior ®” contest held in 2006 by SMITH Magazine, which has kept collecting the memoirs on its website for over five years.

Some of my favorites from the O spread:

Surfing life’s ripples, wishing for waves. – Karen Barbier, 49

Might as well eat that cookie. – Paula Deen, TV chef, 63 (wonder if she regrets that one since her public admission that she has type II diabetes…?)

Old too soon. Smart too late. – Ibis Kramer, 75

Loving heart for sale. Like new. – Ariel Faulkner, 25

As I laid there with visions of Ziggy Stardust, Alladin Sane, and the Thin White Duke swirling around in my head and thinking about what six words I would use to tell my story, I thought that many of us, like David Bowie, probably needed more than six words to tell our stories as they changed and shifted. I mean, if I wrote a 6-word memoir back when I was 18, would it still hold up today? Likely not, but it would still be valid. Surely, people like David and I had a right to at least 12 or even 18 words, given how many things we’ve done and changes we’ve made? (Hey! Another connection – one of my favorite Bowie songs, “Changes,” from 1971’s Hunky Dory album – the anthem to reinvention)

And so, I think there should be a new rule: anyone who has written a number of life chapters and gone through a lot of ch ch ch changes can write more than one six-word memoir to tell their story. I myself would want to use about five sets of six words (for a total of 30 if you’re keeping score) to describe each chapter. The latest? “Got off the ladder. Creativity abounds!”

Oh right; almost forgot the post’s punchline. If you’re in business, your company is probably reinventing itself on a regular basis (and if you’re not, you risk falling by the wayside, but that’s a topic for another article). Be sure that your marketing plans include updating your image and your customers on the new and improved you – hire Lockstock to help!

This week we started working on a fun and exciting new project – helping to redesign the website of a heavy lift trucking company. As we got started doing our usual thing – brainstorming web marketing strategy, helping the client to develop a brand and a brand image, etc. – we were reminded just how profoundly a site redesign can change how you do business and impact your bottom line.

Redesign, refresh, rework, rebuild, redo, renovate – any of these terms will work to describe the act of taking the time to really look at your website and determining what, if anything, it’s doing for you and what it’s not doing for you that you know it could.

Take the example of FaviEntertainment.com, a website that sells consumer electronics manufactured by its parent company, Favi Entertainment. Favi Entertainment had grown into a top electronics manufacturer but saw only $5,700 in revenue from its site in 2010.

Jeremy Yakel, Favi Entertainment’s owner knew why: the site was too busy and not at all well-organized. Overall, the site’s user experience was not conducive to selling the company’s products. Yakel decided that only a complete redesign and an accompanying shift in web strategy would turn the situation around.

The result? After investing only about $3,900 for the site redesign and taking several essential steps to make it easy for customers to find the site and purchase products on it, FaviEntertainment.com brought in more than $183,000 in the first three quarters of 2011.

Getting back to our new client, the trucking company, we have big plans for them with this project: a professional website that gets across the company’s brand, its specialized services, and the high ratings it consistently gets from customers and partners. How? Professional and pleasing design, customer stories (or case studies), vivid photographs of the fleet in action, and compelling web marketing copy.

If you’re ready to go from four figures in online sales to six, contact us today!

One of my great pleasures each week is to sit down with the Sunday New York Times and a big cup o’ Joe. I’m talking the real, printed, covered-in-newsprint-ink-when-you’re-done New York Times; not on a digital reader or computer screen (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

I love the NYT and I’ve been reading it for years. I can easily while away hours when I have the time to read it from cover to cover. I’ll admit to loving – still – the Magazine, the Style section (can’t believe she wore that hat with that dress!), and the Business section where the different schools of thought in business, economics, and politics duke it out. But my guiltiest reading pleasure in the Sunday Times…?

The Obituaries.

That’s right; I love reading about other people’s lives, even if it is on the sad occasion of their deaths. Reading the obits – especially those in the Times because they cover the lives and deaths of remarkable people from around the world – is a great way to learn about the people who’ve recently passed as well as the era in which they lived, and, most inspiring, the impact many of these people have had on our lives even if we didn’t know it before reading their obituaries.

For example, this past Sunday’s times included an obituary for Betty Haas Pfister, who died on November 17 at the age of 90. Ms. Haas, a pilot since 1942, undoubtedly made a difference in my life, entering a field and a war (she was a member of the 1,074-strong WASPs in WWII) where few women were allowed. In later years, Ms. Haas worked as an aircraft mechanic and then bought and flew her own plane in competitions and races, twice winning the All Women’s International Air Race. I, like all women in the U.S. today, have people like Ms. Haas to thank for paving the way to greater equality for women. And how exciting to read about her life and feel that connection on some lazy Sunday?!

For what is an obituary – at least a well-written obituary – after all, but a story? The story of someone’s life and often a celebration of  that life. Which leads me to my next point: what would any of us want our obituary to say, and what do we do to be sure that it says that? How do we want someone to feel after they’ve read our obituaries?

Thinking about this can be a strong motivator. It’s enough to prompt me to think about what my life story is so far and what additional accomplishments I want celebrated in my obituary. And with our life stories still being written each and every day, the content of our obituaries – the stories of our lives –  is completely in our control.

Hello! Maggie Evans, Lockstock founder and chief storyteller, here with an exciting announcement. I bugged my sister enough that she’s finally agreed to become part of Lockstock Communications! Yay!

So let me introduce to you the one and only Phyllis Moroney.

Phyllis comes to us with a background in journalism and copywriting. Being a power social media consumer for many years (I think Groupon has a framed picture of her up on their wall), she’s the perfect choice to lead our social media marketing department. So, if you need someone to create and manage Facebook and Linkedin pages, start a Twitter account, and write and manage your blog, tweet for you, etc., we’re now ready for your business!

Contact us today to get started!

Hey, Lockstock fans! Check out our new company website and let us know what you think.

It’s been an interesting journey finally getting to the point when we’re ready to go live with our site. You know the old saying, “the cobbler’s children have no shoes?” Well, that’s been our situation. But we finally finished making the shoes, and we’re ready to walk all over the web with them.

So, when you have a “spare” moment (“as if,” right? But hey, it’s us and we know you’ll do it for us), send your feedback to info@lockstockcommunications.com or post comments on Facebook.

–Maggie and Phyllis