A-Cubed Marketing Services

05/08/2022

Love to all the wonderful mothers and grandmothers out there!

To MY MOM, specifically, thank you for your life of love, generosity, hope, care, encouragement and more than I can ever include in one little post….

04/11/2022

06/19/2020

Today, Karen and I drove to Albuquerque to see Petroglyph National Monument.

These photos are from there. The drawings you see here are mostly Native American made. A few were made by the early Spanish explorers and missionaries.

There is a long, high, lava flow that runs through the canyon on that side of the city. The Native Americans and Spanish scratched / chipped their symbols into the lava rock there.

The estimated age of these symbols is 400 - 700 years old. To establish this estimate, they date the artifacts that have been discovered in the area.

It was REALLY hot there, today. The sand trail was in the full sun. Theo was with us and kept darting from bush to bush for shade and we figured out he was probably burning his feet in the sand. I walked back to the car to retrieve the doggie backpack I’ve worn on several occasions and carried him the full length of the trail. No easy feat in that heat!

06/17/2020

In the 1500’s, Spain was busy colonizing the New World. Their northernmost reach was Santa Fe New Mexico.

It was the usual story of church + army + technological one-sidedness.

The Pueblo Indians were basically enslaved by the Spanish. They were forced to build a massive cathedral. Finally, in 1680, the Indians rose up against their oppressors and drove them out of their territories. As part of their purge of all Spanish influences, they tore the cathedral down. Eventually, Spain returned and subdued the local population and in 1717 a second, much smaller church was built on the ruins of the original cathedral. The pictures you see in this post tell that tale.

The Native Americans were painted as rebels and savages because they chose to fight back and hang on to what was theirs.

When we look at how the Chinese youth rose up against their government (1989), or when we think about the American Revolution, or when we watched the pro-democracy riots they were having in Hong Kong last November/ December we think of those people as heroes and patriots.

Why do we still retain words like savages, rebels etc. in our language and thoughts when discussing the Native Americans?

The ultimate conclusion is that there has always been and continues to be a very confused view on who actually had their natural, human rights abused, who actually were the attackers and who actually were the savages.

Today, these problems still persist on the Native Indian reservations. All over the country, there are true stories of how white law enforcers have killed Native Americans over very minor issues. I was on the Navajo Reservation where a Native woman told me about how a local native teenage girl had gone into a convenience store and stolen a case of beer. A white police officer shot the girl 8 times in the back and killed her. For a case of beer. This is not an isolated story.

Again, I think there are parallels between those old days and today.
Black lives matter. So do Native American, and Asian, and Middle Eastern, and European.

More people should read about and visit these places. More people should THINK and FEEL before they speak, behave, and enforce laws.

06/17/2020

Outside of Santa Fe, there is a place called Pecos National Historical Park Monument. It’s a great lesson in Spanish-Native American domination. The Pueblo Indians were the dominant culture here. Their town was on a leg of a major Native American trade route. This was a large, sophisticated network with products, commodities, and unfortunately captives, being exchanged.

It extended from Southern Mexico to New Mexico to the Great Lakes and to the Pacific Ocean.

As I was there today, I was thinking how the architecture was not dissimilar from what I’ve seen in Italy and Greece; brick walls, streets, market areas, worship areas.
Somehow, our earlier American ancestors held the belief that these people were ‘savages’, I suppose it’s because that made it easier to do the horrible things they did. (Not terribly different from the Nazi’s if you want a moral benchmark)

Keep in mind that these were communities that had flourished for 11,000 years without destroying their environment like we’ve done in 400 year’s. They had elaborate mythologies, arts, music too.

These days, we’re getting another chance to appreciate the need to respect other cultures (Black Lives Matter). It would be nice if the history of what happened here could serve to teach our nation what we so obviously need to learn.

06/15/2020

With so much wonderful art to see, even in just the few galleries that are open, who needs museums?

03/27/2020

THE BIG TIME-OUT

I am not comfortable with silences. I prefer an ordered chaos to a slow, ticking of a clock. My happiest times are when I’m working at peak levels, getting paid for good work and see the results of my labor. But in those times, I also forget the importance of other things.

I lose sight of my place in the community. I misplace the hours meant for contemplation and meaningful communication. I get so busy fighting for my ‘place in line’ that it doesn’t even occur to me that there could be another way ‘in’.

These last weeks since the world stopped have had a surreal quality to them. I keep wanting to put down the book, or turn the channel or leave the theater but none of us get to do that. The only way out is forward.

In the months leading up to this crisis, the world seemed like it was turning faster and faster. The angriness of market gods that seemed to always require blood sacrifice, the constant alarm bell of climate change appeals, the snarling, seething, bared fangs and flashing claws of political dissent. Suddenly, something or someone has thrown the switch and the carousel has grudgingly ground to a halt.

Could it be that this curse is a blessing in disguise? Might humanity have suddenly been given a supernatural ‘time out’ before our latest bratty, collective tantrums landed us in even worse trouble? This might be the moment we regain our sanity. Maybe, finally, the heavy toll in human life will be enough for us to stop killing each other. Maybe this reminder of how powerful nature is will be enough for us to regain respect for it, enough to spur commitment and an all out effort to avert climate change while there’s still a few years left. Maybe the pandemic’s disregard for social status or elected privilege will be the equalizer we need to restore social justice.

This could be the most wonderful moment in history, instead of one of the worst, if we will it be.

03/21/2020

You'd never drive the 5 freeway blind-folded. You'd never take an exam without studying. Why run your business on intuition?

Are you making full use of all the amazing information opportunities available these days through the internet?

There's nearly endless information out there if you take the time to access and learn from it!
- Free reports from leading research groups like Pew Research Center
- D-I-Y customer surveys you can field with tools like Survey Monkey
- CRM models that capture all your customer data that your entire company

Check out my latest blog and see the world through a more informed lens.

https://acubedmarketing.com/consulting/listen-analyze-react-act-repeat/

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This blog discusses data driven decisions result in better sales results and more efficient spends. Online surveys, Pew Research Center data, CRM apps.

02/08/2020

Last day on the mountain. - near white out conditions.
Skiing by Braille.

02/08/2020

One week of relaxing and skiing in Colorado; Steamboat Springs - God’s Country!

02/01/2020

We’re happy to announce completion of another successful client project!

Molly Hines is a PhD candidate at the University of North Texas, focusing on violin. A-Cubed Marketing Services was hired to build a website for Molly to help her market herself to the classical music world. Molly is hoping for a position within a regional symphony.

Between classes and over a number of months, we worked with Molly to understand her personal brand. Then, we developed a custom look and feel for the site, carefully reflecting Molly’s vision of who she is and how she wants to be understood. We completed the site with copy (text) that complements her personal brand.

We integrated two social media apps into the site; Sound Cloud and YouTube. Visitors can enjoy recordings and videos of Molly’s past recitals without leaving the site. Molly’s secondary focus is tutoring young violinists. Interested students can contact Molly from the site, to request additional information about lessons.

Visit the new site! Go to:

http://www.mollyjhines.com/

Home Molly's Musical World For Molly Hines, to be involved in music is to be alive. It’s as natural as breathing and it’s a reflection of who Molly is at the deepest level. Molly started her love affair with the violin while in grade school. It was bound to happen, since music runs through her f...