Creatures of Habit: A Black Sheep Experiment (Part III)

This blog post is a part of a series—an experiment of sorts. You see, I’m reading a book about forming better habits, and I invited the entire agency to participate.

This blog post is a part of a series—an experiment of sorts. You see, I’m reading a book about forming better habits, and I invited the entire agency to participate. I also invited YOU to play along—and it’s not too late. It’s never too late. This is the third post of the series. Read the first two here and here.

Condensed

How A Coloring Book Sparked My Creativity

If I’ve heard one name over and over this past year, it’s Chance the Rapper.

Must Be Present

To Meditate: verb. Think deeply or focus one’s mind for a period of time, in silence or with an aid, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation.

Never Backward, Always Forward: A Case Against Complacency

Spoilers ahead for Luke Cage: In a traditional creating-a-superhero story, Luke Cage’s evolution into Harlem’s protector is both predictable and needed—a man, with a brutal past and horrific testimony, sees his loved ones tragically taken from him.

Spoilers ahead for Luke Cage:In a traditional creating-a-superhero story, Luke Cage’s evolution into Harlem’s protector is both predictable and needed—a man, with a brutal past and horrific testimony, sees his loved ones tragically taken from him. Most notably was Pop, a father-figure and mentor to Power Man (and every other young man that walked into his barber shop), whose motto resonated every time he spoke to Luke: “Never backward, always forward. Always.”

After last night’s Presidential debate, I went to bed feeling like I was out of options.

100 Reasons To Vote

After last night’s Presidential debate, I went to bed feeling like I was out of options. Whether you lean left or right, the 2016 campaign approach from both candidates has, sadly, divided our nation into two Americas. Which, frankly, seems to be the root of several major issues that will significantly impact how we live our lives today and how future generations will live in tomorrow’s America.

Starring David Berman and writers…everywhere.

We spend a lot of time thinking about words and reviewing words making sure we aren’t killing the meaning or point we are crafting.

We spend a lot of time thinking about words and reviewing words making sure we aren’t killing the meaning or point we are crafting. We debate punctuation and whether it’s “non-profit” or “nonprofit”. BTW, it’s nonprofit.

Creatures of HABIT: A Black Sheep Experiment (Part I)

“We’re not perfect—but we’re constantly perfecting.”  This is something you’ll hear us say around the Black Sheep office time and again, week after week.

“We’re not perfect—but we’re constantly perfecting.”  This is something you’ll hear us say around the Black Sheep office time and again, week after week. It’s a mantra of sorts—and at times it can even feel like a bit of a commitment we’re renewing. It’s a nod to the fact that we can always be better…that we can acknowledge the space for improvement, push ourselves harder and find ways to work smarter for ourselves, for each other and for our clients.

To be incredibly too predictable, I, the recovering community outreach officer turned brand manager, can’t help but bring us back to the importance of community—of creating a space to bring people together, in real life, for one-on-one conversations.

The Importance of IRL

I hate to talk about this because I feel like it’s all I can talk about these days, but my husband and I are expecting our first child in October.

The Art of Appreciation

I hate to talk about this because I feel like it’s all I can talk about these days, but my husband and I are expecting our first child in October. As we’ve geared up to take on a new stage in our lives, we’ve been surrounded by enormous support and help. Help that might not always get the proper “thank you” it deserves. 

Reality television, sports and anything that can be classified as “pop-culture” is lost on me. I don’t know what a Drake is and I haven’t seen a movie in a theatre in almost a year.

Do You Even Know Who You Are?

Vengeance. Money. Love. These are all words we’re saying so you read this blog about economics.

A couple years ago I read my first enjoyable non-fiction book.

A couple years ago I read my first enjoyable non-fiction book. I know there’s a lot of enjoyable non-fiction out there, but REALLY… the magic of Hogwarts has resulted in an entire theme park, whereas the history of Hispanics in the Mormon Zion* has resulted in, well, my falling asleep on a hot pink highlighter.

Pounding the tarmac through the seasons, a band of runners are brazenly challenged with intimate questions as they pace their routes. Liberated from responsibilities, their guards drop dramatically, releasing funny and brutally frank confessions, and weaving a powerful narrative behind the anonymous masses.

A film by Matan Rochlitz & Ivo Gormley.

#therunners

**OFFICIAL SELECTION - SHEFFIELD DOC/FEST 2013**
** HONOURABLE MENTION - LONDON SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2014**
**OFFICIAL SELECTION - OPEN CITY DOCS, LONDON 2013**
**OFFICIAL SELECTION - NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL 2013**
**OFFICIAL SELECTION - KAOHSIUNG FILM FESTIVAL, TAIWAN 2013**

The Runners on The Guardian: 
theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2013/nov/15/the-runners-film-interviewing-people-jogging

The Runners

At Black Sheep, we love ideas: New ideas. Bold ideas. Crazy ideas. Audacious ideas.

Why Are You Running Today?

Learn from locals #storyhopper

Over the last few years, I’ve spent a lot of time in airports.

Spend The Night With The Locals

Over the last few years, I’ve spent a lot of time in airports. There’s something I love about airports—maybe it’s the promise of adventure, or the $15 coffee, or the fact that security always, always, always pulls me out of line to search me and I end up having to frantically rush to make it to the gate in time.

Around 2008, I was going through the clearance section of Half Price Books in Austin and came across a chunky little thing with the clickbait-y title of 283 Useful Ideas from Japan.

My Friend Leonard

Around 2008, I was going through the clearance section of Half Price Books in Austin and came across a chunky little thing with the clickbait-y title of 283 Useful Ideas from Japan. The subheading of the book is “For Entrepreneurs and Everyone Else” and while the typeface on the front looked bad, I decided to not judge a book by its cover.

“Brainstorm with me for a second.” — said every person in #agencylife ever.

Thinking Caps + Lightbulb Moments

We’ve turned to each other for inspiration for seven years.

#SHEEPSPO

We’ve turned to each other for inspiration for seven years. Now, we’d like to share that inspiration with you, to give you a snapshot of what greases our gears and fuels our creativity every Monday morning.

THE WRITE STUFF: Advice to Step Up Your Words

Regular

Ditch Your Resolutions (And These Things Too)

New Years revolutions that you can actually stick to

WTF Is Peach and Other Stuff You Need To Know Now

Staying up to date on new technology and social media

Lessons that we could learn from Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler Still Wins

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