“C+ to A+”

My clients are familiar with this expression, as I’m fond of citing it often.

The idea behind the C+ to A+ approach is connected to the practice of trial and error: if a marketing outcome seems uncertain at the outset, the strategy is to simply release whatever half-baked (although well-considered) idea to market and basically improve the offering on the fly by objectively incorporating and being responsive to impulses from the market. Sure, an idea might be “C+”-caliber when it goes out, yet by the time it’s tweaked, improved, and processed, it will eventually become “A+.” Or at least this is the idea…

Rather than paralyze yourself with perfection by studying an issue so exhaustively that all possible consequences are laid out and ascertained with high degree of probability, C+ to A+-ing it means clients are willing to take a walk out onto that rickety wooden span across that gaping valley, knowing they’ll be able to improvise on the run if something goes wrong along the way. C+ to A+ is essentially being okay with taking a walk on the wild side.

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Bad enough the people who fund our movies think we’re a gang of wet-behind-our-ears, whiny, and haughty artists. Show up on time.

It’s also bad enough we can’t manage budgets properly, spending every available cent which arrives in our bank accounts, tossing cash around like drunken sailors with zero money management skills and zero fiduciary responsibilities to the people who go out on a limb for us. So show up on time.

All you actors out there who have a reputation for being cranky, unreliable, totally impossible to work with, and temperamental as all get-out: with that being said, don’t let tardiness be yet another vice they add to our long list of foibles. Show up on time.

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Find parking faster. Pay more easily. Avoid tickets. SFMTA’s SFpark project is a two-year federally funded pilot of new parking management technologies and approaches. Less circling and fewer double-parked cars give us cleaner air and safer streets for bicyclists and pedestrians. With less traffic, public transit and emergency vehicles move more easily.