On June 5th, I once again hosted the Art of Marketing in Toronto. This is the summary I presented at the end of the day.

While original in arrangement, this call to action features the thoughts from the wonderful speakers who preceded it. Thanks to David Usher, Jonah Berger, Seth Godin, Andrew Zimakas, Cheri Chevalier, Kevin O’Brien, Charles Duhigg, and Biz Stone for their inspiration. Thanks to Erica Ehm for the photograph.

Monkey See. Monkey Do.

While you didn’t see any monkeys here today, you did see some thought leaders and we hope that you were inspired and educated enough to do something different when you return to work.

After all, you’re in the ideas business.
And an idea is only as great as the passion behind it.

So don’t be a compliant slot filler.
Don’t sell average stuff to average people.
And stop bowling.

45% of your day is a habit. First thing tomorrow morning, start breaking it.
Everyone has the capacity to be creative. Especially you.
Luckily, creativity is a renewable resource because it’s 95% work and 5% inspiration.

So go out there a raise a ruckus.

Make the public private.
Play it the way you feel it.
Cross the 4th wall.
Talk it out.
Eat while you dream.
Be weird.
Failure IS an option so jump off cliffs and grow wings on the way down.
But don’t just want to do it. Plan to do it because without structure, freedom and imagination are just chaos.

You have a moral to your story but remember that it’s the story that people connect to.

This was the Art of Marketing. That was our job.
You don’t have a job. You have a platform to do art.

You’re really good at leading yourself. So do it.
You’re really good at connecting. So do it.

We hope we’ve inspired.
We hope we’ve educated.
And we hope you’ll act.

And if anyone ever doubts the brilliance you saw today, there’s only one thing you need to say:
My name’s not b**ch. It’s Vicky.

Thanks for the learning and the laughs.