The Obama Foundation on Twitter: "Only two days until civic leaders like @aimeewoodall gather at the inaugural #ObamaSummit. Be a part of it: https://t.co/WdBQALg9je… https://t.co/AYdRSHVyq1"

Sometimes, we take our inspiration from in-house. Today we look no further than our very own fearless leader, Aimee Woodall.

Thanks, Obama [Foundation Summit].

Condensed

Ferrari 512 BBi Is A Piece of Art - Petrolicious

Putting Purpose in the Driver’s Seat with Ferrari

The 1981 Ferrari 512i BB has a horizontally mounted direct-injected V12 engine that produces 335hp, 333lb/ft of torque and has a claimed top speed of 179mph.

Rapping, deconstructed: The best rhymers of all time

Breaks on a bus, brakes on a car
Breaks to make you a superstar

Rap Battle: Storytelling on the Beat

But these here breaks will rock your shoes

As writers, communicators and marketers working in a cause-driven field, we are no stranger to the importance of untold stories.

War Stories: A Voice For The Voiceless

As writers, communicators and marketers working in a cause-driven field, we are no stranger to the importance of untold stories. We use our words and creativity to create urgency and inspire action. Sometimes these stories are lost in a noisy world. Unheard.

Find Your Values, Let Them Lead You To Action

Values have become a checklist item. Behind “Mission” and “Vision,” they’re the next thing to tackle before you startup, rebrand or launch a new culture handbook. But they really shouldn’t be. Real values are baked-in to your DNA. They’re like eye color—natural, striking and permanent. You can throw on contacts, but the truth remains behind the lens.

I grew up in a Southern family that loved its sayings.

Don’t Just Scratch the Surface

My inspiration is based on The Millennial Podcast by Megan Tan, creator and host. I strongly feel that we’re all lucky that our jobs are an everyday exercise in empathy, and podcasts like these provide such a valuable way to take in an experience you may have never thought about.

The Millennial Podcast

My inspiration is based on The Millennial Podcast by Megan Tan, creator and host. I strongly feel that we’re all lucky that our jobs are an everyday exercise in empathy, and podcasts like these provide such a valuable way to take in an experience you may have never thought about.

“Do blue butterflies eat pieces of the sky?” 

“Can girls be robots?” 

“Why don’t worms have faces?”

How Does Life Live?

“Do blue butterflies eat pieces of the sky?” 

We all know the David and Goliath Bible school story: Little guy wins out big over presumed-to-win giant.

The Advantages of Disadvantages

We all know the David and Goliath Bible school story: Little guy wins out big over presumed-to-win giant. Yada yada yada—upset and unforeseen victories ensue. In Malcom Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, Gladwell turns the idea that sometimes the smaller guy wins or the underdog comes out on top by flipping what we presume to be disadvantages to actual ADVANTAGES.

Who doesn’t want to start their week off with some philosophizing?

To Shock and To Awe

Who doesn’t want to start their week off with some philosophizing? Currently, I’m in the middle of slowly powering throughSeneca’s “On The Happy Life,” and a specific piece stuck out to me as relevant for our work—and a testament to the challenge of shocking and awing.

A COLLABORATIVE FILM BY GNARLY BAY + FOREST WOODWARD + FRIENDS

Special thanks to Doug Woodward, Brendan Leonard, Skip Armstrong, David Marx, Jeff Scholl, Elliot Ross, Jess Lowe, Howl Collective, Story & Heart

Edit:  Jordan Ingram + Gnarly Bay
Additional Audio Mixing:  Joshua Svare

Save the Important Places.  Protect the Grand Canyon and other wild rivers.  Please visit www.americanrivers.org/grandcanyon to learn more.

Supported by American Rivers / Chaco Footwear / NRS / Goal Zero / Marmoset Music / Story & Heart

MUSIC
01. Blind and Unwise (Instrumental) by Gregory and the Hawk
02. Honey Jars by Bryan John Appleby
03. Snowy Crescendo (Instrumental) by Bell Plaines
04. For a Film (Instrumental) by Bell Plaines
05. Awareness (Instrumental) by Lee Brooks

THE IMPORTANT PLACES.

Storytelling: The Important Places

My heart is on fire. I am surrounded by and continually following behind these incredible preservers and creators who have a knack for threading the important scenes through storytelling—a skill I want to keep growing forever.

Go ahead. Take a minute to panic because you already feel behind and overwhelmed.

Planning for Now Isn’t Good Enough

Go ahead. Take a minute to panic because you already feel behind and overwhelmed. Now take a deep breath because Benjamin P. Hardy is here to help.

On Saturday, we woke up in a world where the President of the United States put a curb on immigration by signing an order calling for a ban barring travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Take Action

Meet Sheepspo.

1. the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative by a member of the Flock

Regular

Turn and Face the Strange

I remember my first day at Black Sheep pretty vividly. I think we all know that feeling on a new job—the moment when you walk into a room of apparent strangers, with the sinking feeling that you (for some reason) simultaneously want/need the approval of every single person in the room AND a chocolate milkshake?

Write a Letter to a Stranger

I remember my first day at Black Sheep pretty vividly. I think we all know that feeling on a new job—the moment when you walk into a room of apparent strangers, with the sinking feeling that you (for some reason) simultaneously want/need the approval of every single person in the room AND a chocolate milkshake? No whipped cream, obviously. I’m watching my figure.

Today is Cyber Monday, a day when thousands upon thousands of us will shop for holiday gifts for family and friends with the click of a mouse.

A Cyber Monday Mission.

Things You Didn’t Know You Needed

We’re all about inspiration because we know how important it is with the work we do.

That PTO life: Gimme a break

We’re all about inspiration because we know how important it is with the work we do. We’re constantly looking for ways to spur on creativity and get ourselves thinking beyond the predictable for our clients. But what happens when we get tired? When we slow down? When brainstorming seems like a chore instead of a chance to rally around great ideas? When life throws a curve ball?

Bake the Cake and Eat It, Too

We’re busy. We’re overbooked. We go home stressed (presently about this election), shoulders heavy with frustration about the things that we didn’t finish, or tasks that were left undone. It happens to the best of us. But we are strivers and thrivers, and oftentimes find other ways to wind down.

There’s a particular kind of project that doesn’t feel like a project.

It feels like something else entirely. Over Black Sheep’s 16 years, we’ve learned to recognize these engagements — the ones where the stakes are real, where the mission is load-bearing, where getting the story right genuinely changes what’s possible for the people an organization serves. We’ve also learned that these are the projects we want to fill our days with.

Right now, our roster is full of them. I want to talk about that — not as a highlight reel, but as a reflection of what we believe this work is for. And if you’re leading one of these organizations right now and it feels heavy or uncertain or like your story isn’t keeping pace with your mission, this is for you too.


Some projects aren’t a single scope — they’re a relationship, built over time, through the kind of trust that only comes from doing hard things together.

Houston Arts Alliance is in one of the most pivotal moments in its history. A new CEO — the first woman and person of color to lead the organization — has stepped into a role that carries both enormous expectation and extraordinary possibility. We are building alongside them from the ground up: immediate messaging and leadership transition tools, a mission and vision refresh, a public education campaign, a community engagement process and a full brand foundation. Long, layered, listening-first work. Some of our favorite kind.

Houston Parks Board is marking its 50th anniversary at the start of an exciting new chapter — bold new leadership, a visionary strategic plan and a future that has been a century in the making. We’re evolving their brand to match the scale of that moment. Being trusted when the foundation is strong and the future is wide open is its own kind of honor.

Good Reason Houston is an organization we know well — we built their original brand in 2018, and they’ve called on us at several points of strategic inflection since. This is one of those moments. The world these leaders are navigating looks almost nothing like it did seven years ago, and our work together right now is about finding language that tells their story with clarity and confidence for where things are today.

Civic Builders finances and develops school facilities across the country, making excellent schools possible in communities where the need is greatest. We completed a full messaging and positioning strategy with them, and we’re now deep into their visual identity system — in genuine collaboration with their extraordinary internal team. This partnership is the kind we aspire to: the work belongs to all of us.

The Greater Houston Partnership is building an AI-powered tool to connect educators, employers and community partners in ways that expand workforce opportunity. We’re building the brand that makes it accessible and credible from day one.

Fervo Energy is redefining what clean energy looks like. We are their strategic design agency — giving visual and creative form to the complexity of what they’re building, because a breakthrough technology deserves a story told with equal craft.

The University of Nevada, Reno trusted us to direct a digital campaign for their Black Youth Mental Health Initiative — designed to reach young people at the right moment, in the right channels and keep them connected to support that can change the trajectory of their lives. This follows our branding and strategy work for their CDC-sponsored Safer Nights opioid overdose prevention campaign last year.

The Center for Civic and Tech Life is now publishing a magazine for local election officials — the people who make democracy function at the ground level. We named and developed the publication’s visual identity, because this community deserves tools that reflect the seriousness of their work.

In collaboration with January Advisors, we’re working with the League of Women Voters Houston on a set of core values and a strategic plan built for what comes next. The League has been doing this work longer than most organizations have existed. Helping them articulate where they’re headed is not something we take lightly.

Much of this work is happening in Houston — the city where Black Sheep was founded, where many of us live and where we feel the stakes of these institutions personally. When you’re a Houstonian working on Houston, it stops being a client list and starts being something else.

It takes something to make this call. The leaders we work with aren’t doing it because things are easy — they’re doing it because they’ve decided that a story that can’t carry the mission is a liability they can’t afford. That takes clarity about what’s actually at stake. It takes a willingness to look honestly at the gap between where you are and how you’re being perceived. And it takes the kind of courage that doesn’t always get named as courage — the quiet decision to invest in something foundational when there are a hundred urgent things competing for the same resources.

But the thread running through all of it — local and national — is the same: find the organizations doing the most necessary work, and make sure their story is strong enough to carry their mission forward.

If your organization is in a moment that demands more clarity, more confidence or a story that finally matches where you’re headed — we’d love to be in that room with you.

A reflection on 16 years of learning which projects are worth our days — and the mission-driven organizations we're building alongside right now.

The Work That Doesn't Feel Like Work | Black Sheep Agency

What it takes to build a story strong enough to carry a mission forward.

A reflection on the partnerships filling our roster right now — and what it takes for mission-driven organizations to build a story strong enough to carry their work forward.

The Black Sheep blog is turning up the volume on community engagement, social media strategy, Houston happenings and what it means to lead a purpose-driven life.

The Black Sheep Agency | Social impact and nonprofit blog

We like to type as much as we like to listen.

We're not shy.

The Work That Doesn’t Feel Like Work