John and Rich
People are always asking me what it is that makes Portfolio Center such a unique, special place. It’s true; there really isn’t another school like it out there. No school does education like Portfolio Center.
Case in point: Designer John Bielenberg and writer Rich Binell were here this week to give a workshop and spend time with students in my class. John was our seminar speaker, and before he began his speech, he stopped, looked up from the podium at the students, and said, “I love to come to Portfolio Center. This school is different than any other in the U.S. It is not a school- it is a Clubhouse! I have quit trying to tell people about it— or trying to explain it… now i just say, everywhere I go, you HAVE to go down there.”
Well, Portfolio Center is a brand, like Starbucks, Coke, or BMW Mini outthere… and people join brands. They join Portfolio Center.
We prepare our students to go out and become strategic thinkers, to understand customer experiences, and to be able to understand and repurpose those experiences across any multitude of platforms— to express and interpret their passions through an authentic voice—for their clients.
As you well know, I could go on and on about this, but I received a letter from Rich Binell as he arrived back home in San Francisco, getting in sometime around midnight, West Coast time. (Let me add how grateful we are for people like Rich and John, who rearrange their busy schedules and who sacrifice sleep and family time to come visit with us.)
Here’s the note:
I almost got to sleep in my own bed, finally, last night. However, when I tiptoed in after midnight, I found two small boys snuggled in with their lovely mom, flanked by two hounds (on the floor).
So I slept in Dashiell’s bed.
I was so wound up I had slept very little on the plane. The vodka helped, but not much.
As I explained to Ali and Jessica in the car on the way to the airport, I love Portfolio Center because it is a group of very bright people who know what they want to do, and just need help to get there.
Unlike a major university where I taught writing/branding/marketing/design/business/grammar/spelling/negotiations/enthusiasm/quality/presentationskills last year (for a whole semester), which is a place where journalism and accounting students took my class for fun, the students at Portfolio Center are very serious about beginning careers in communications.
This makes a lot of difference to me. Let’s put it this way. If Portfolio Center were on the Left Coast, I’d be teaching writing/branding/marketing/design/business/grammar/spelling/negotiations/enthusiasm/quality/presentation skills at your august institution.
I especially would love to work with writers, because the world so desperately needs more who know what the fuck they’re doing. But you’re in Atlanta and I’m in Los Gatos and Bielenberg’s in Belfast.
As it is, John and I have to do our damnedest to cram all we’ve learned in the past 25 years—into two days.
The thing is that there are two big benefits to me.
Teaching reminds me what I know, what I believe, and what I respect.
And.
It gives me the opportunity to give back to a community of people that I am occasionally proud to be a part of.
I hope it was as worthwhile for you and your students as it was for me.
Thank you for all your Southern Hospitality.
Rich
For those of you who know Rich, or have been around him, or in a class with him, or worked professionally with him, you know he is not for the faint-hearted. He is about helping people, and he brings his passion and truths right in front of you—right smack in front of you. You might disagree with him, but you’d better be able to submit a better argument if you do.
He closed his note with a quote from George Orwell, “The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.” That is so Rich.
I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the energy John and Rich brought to Portfolio Center and to the students… this is what learning is about… it is what makes the difference— it is the silver bullet!
it’s not a school; it’s a process, a state of mind.