I just finished reading a great Q&A in CW Bulletin, the online companion to CW Magazine. The interview is with a veteran creative director and entrepreneur at Grayton Integrated Publishing on how to cut costs with creative projects like marketing, advertising, and publications.

The interview contains some very sound advice, and I was struck at how much of it sounds familiar (pun intended):

What’s the first step to defining your objectives?
Whether you’re creating a magazine or a brochure or launching a full-blown campaign, don’t discuss what it will look like until you’ve agreed on its purpose. Who is your audience? What are you telling them? What are you hoping to achieve? Don’t try to figure out if your vehicle should be a bus or a Ferrari until you’ve determined where it’s coming from and where it’s headed.

Turns out the interviewee is my mother. Long-time readers of this blog may also remember that my Grandmother was recently in Sailing Magazine.

Alright dad, time to step it up!

Update: A few gramatical errors and some horrible spelling errors. Turns out my mother was also a copy editor.

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Thank you for asking.

My grandparents, George and Nancy Young, taught me to sail on a 22′ Tanzer on Lake St. Clair, a good size lake between Lake Huron and Lake Erie. They have been active sailors since they first learned to sail as teenagers and passed a love of sailing on to me (you may have noticed the nautical theme for the blog).

So, it was with great excitement that I went to my local Barnes & Noble and picked up the November issue of Sailing magazine this morning. I found my grandmother and first cousins once removed smiling at me from page eight.

My grandfather sadly passed away in January at age 87 so my grandmother is now the sole owner of her boat. This spring, at age 84, she painted the hull by herself, got the boat ready for the season, and put it in the water. She sailed it all season (it just came out 2 weeks ago) but ran into a few snags that my grandfather would have dealt with in the past. So, for advice she sent a letter to Sailing magazine’s Boat Doctor who answered her question and published her letter.

In doing so, however, they omitted her age. So, she sent another letter (see photo above). This time she stressed that she was 84 — including a picture to prove it — and tried to give some encouragement to “the other old ladies who may not think they can keep a boat up and running.” Needless to say I’m impressed. Hopefully there will be a few other old ladies who keep sailing because of her example!

Its raining like crazy here in San Francisco (the first rain since I moved here in March) but Sailing magazine has brightened my day.

Also, yes, the boat is named the Passing Wind. I come by my sense of humor honestly.

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