Turning A Negative Into A Positive Picture

It occurred to me today that I hadn't taken the opportunity to fully convey my thoughts on the past month from my book and lecture tour outside of Tweets and FB posts which was, in a word, incredible but layered with meaning and purpose that I am compelled to share in broader form.

The month started out with a presentation to executives from Colgate-Palmolive on the impact of urban culture and Hip-Hop on brands and consumer culture where I tickled them with my story on how Palmolive "dishwashing liquid" was used to clean more than just the dishes in our house as I was raised by a single-parent with two older brothers so Mom had to be resourceful and innovative with limited means and actually helped usher in the the liquid "soap" category.

I joked that we're still waiting on those royalties :)

Speaking of home, the tour last month included a stop back in Pittsburgh where I spoke to teens tried for adult crimes in the Allegheny County Jail's Alternative Education Program. It was a moving discussion. I, essentially, carried a message of redemption, accountability and that their story didn't have to end there and that they, too, had the power and freedom to see beyond their environment and incarceration.

When you're doing public speaking, sometimes things just happen in an existential way. Toward the end of my comments, I was using the analogy from Lauryn Hill who said "turn a negative into a positive picture." At this point, my mouth was moving but I was really just a representative for the divine voice who had a message for them that day. I explained that negatives are taken into the darkroom for processing and that they were in the darkroom of their life but there was good news...

As Pastor Freddie Haynes in Dallas would say, this is where I was about to "shout them." I carefuly explained the process of how a photographer takes a negative into the darkroom for a reason. I asked them if they knew why...I said because it is only in that dark environment that a special light can be found to expose the negative so he can begin to see the real picture...

I further explained the process but later Googled the actual process for developing a negative and realized what was happening with my thoughts at that moment.

Here is the partial description..."a very basic darkroom usually has an enlarger for making prints, along with an assortment of developing chemicals in separate tubs. To develop prints, the artist exposes photo-sensitive enlarging paper to light through an enlarger, and then dunks the photograph in a series of developing chemicals to bring out the latent image, stop the action of the developing bath, fix the photograph, and rinse the developing chemicals off.

Once this process is completed in the darkroom, the paper is safe to expose to light, and it can be dried and used." Wow.

I told them to think about it. The negative is resistant to natural light and the "artist" (READ: Creator) has to take the negative through the darkroom and an entire process of eliminating certain "toxic" chemicals before it can be exposed to light and become useful.

At this precise moment I was explaining the process, a force beyond me lifted my head up into the ceiling and I was standing under the brightest halogen light in the dimly lit rec room inside the jail. The light embraced me and I pointed up and told them that they can always find light, even in the darkest place, and that the divine artist could be found there in darkroom to take them through the process so they would no longer be sensitive to the "light" and could be fully exposed to the light source that would illuminate a new path.

I can't describe the feeling I had after that experience but I will always cherish it. I didn't know the impact on them as these guys had committed serious crimes and were truly products of their environment. I was floored to receive Thank You notes from all 30 of the inmates I spoke to just yesterday. After that presentation, I also did a micro-enterprise symposium at Carnegie Mellon University's esteemed Tepper School of Business and made great connections with innovative entrepreneurs like Donna Baxter and former WAMO-FM GM Ron Atkinson who is blazing a new trail for urban radio in Pittsburgh with 101 The Blaze (101theblaze.com), an internet station which is heating things up back home. We'll be doing some things together in the very near future I'm excited to share in the coming months.

Perhaps, though, the real highlight for me was my AT&T "28 Days" Lecture Series in Chicago. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hETOqYTyRts).

It was a great evening in the Windy City. Chicago will always have a special place in my heart as the place where I got my start in the industry. I can fondly remember walking down Michigan Avenue into the Burrell Communications Group offices in the heart of Downtown. I was hungry to make a difference and thirsty for a taste of success.

I only had a straw and the world was still half empty in my opinion but, yet, I was ready to drink from a fire hydrant flow of endless opportunity. That was the Hip-Hop in me. Fast forward to another brisk night on Lake Michigan a few weeks ago and the cup was full this time.

It was good to see Northwestern classmates, old friends and former colleagues at the DuSable Museum of African-American History that night like David Rudd, Oveda Brown, John Hill and Chris Jones (with wife Tracy and beautiful daughter Dominique). It was also gratifying to have media veterans like Ken Smikle from Target Market News there. Most of all the energy in the auditorium was palpable.

I realized that night the purpose I am destined to fulfill. I want to inspire, motivate and accelerate the process for everyday, ordinary people to do extraordinary things by identifying their passion and purpose, visualizing their success and channeling positive thoughts and images into their subconscious mind to produce action and the physical equivalent of those thoughts in their reality.

I call it the Point of No Return.

I believe we all come here with a divine destiny and gifts that are unique to us. Those gifts are yours and mine to open up and share with the world. That destiny is yours and mine to inherit. To settle for anything less, is to turn away from the divine gift giver.

I represent a Hip-Hop generation of entrepreneurs, executives, philanthropists, politicians, community activists, teachers, parents, husbands, wives, sons and daughters who refused to be products of our environment, but instead chose to be products of our imagination.

We, in turn, influenced a nation and changed the course of history. Fortunately, the DNA of Hip-Hop is all about reinvention so we continue to imagine what the next level looks like and we go out and predict the future by creating it.

I'm encouraged by the imagination, vision and imagery surrounding the next generation leaders in the advertising and marketing community and movements such as The Marcus Graham Project and my colleague Lincoln Stephens. Keep dreaming. Keep imagining. Keep thinking. Keep planning. Keep moving. Keep turning a negative into a positive picture!!!

Special thanks to Jennifer Jones, Tracy McDade and the team at AT&T, Sanders-Wingo, Wave Multicultural (The Marketing Arm) and Fleishman-Hillard for the opportunity to participate in this groundbreaking campaign.

Let's start writing the next chapter in history...now!!!

Erin