I recently sat down with Shaney Jo Darden, the woman who has prominently displayed the phrase, “I Love Boobies!” across everything from bracelets to t-shirts in her endeavor to help eradicate breast cancer. Her company, The Keep A Breast Foundation, works to use art events, educational programs and fundraising efforts to increase breast cancer awareness among young people by exposing them to methods of prevention, early detection and support so that they are better equipped to make choices and develop habits that will benefit their long-term health and well-being.

On the eve of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I was inspired to take an inside look at Shaney Jo’s unconventionally effective methods for motivating our youth to care about their health.

Why are your boobies everywhere?

We’ve seen such amazing support from people all across the globe that really want to support a prevention-based breast cancer campaign. I think many people appreciate our approach, being focused on teens, and reaching them through art, music and fashion. The I Love Boobies campaign has helped extend our reach to people across the globe, resonating with the language we use and the information we give them.

Why breast cancer?

Keep A Breast started over 10 years ago after discovering there was a need to educate and inspire a younger generation about breast cancer prevention. I’ve had several people in my life, and in my community, that were struggling with the disease and I felt there was nothing for my generation to feel connected to. I knew I needed to do something that really resonated with myself and my friends. The first Breast Cast exhibition was born and has continued to grow from there.

What’s your end goal with Keep A Breast?

To eradicate breast cancer and stop the suffering and deaths that it creates. We want to educate people about breast cancer and make a positive change in their lives to radically reduce everyone’s risk.

Where did the ideas for the bracelets come from?

We saw a need for people to support charities they were passionate about with an everyday item, we had been using the I Love Boobies campaign on t-shirts, and when the LIVESTRONG bracelets started becoming popular we decided it was the perfect fit. Since the I Love Boobies campaign was really resonating with people we saw it natural to be on the bracelet as well.

Where did the idea for the casts come from?

When I decided to do a breast cancer fundraiser I wanted to design something that I knew how to do – throw memorable art events. My background is in art and fashion design so the idea just came naturally.

What are some of the most moving stories you’ve heard along your mission?

I hear moving stories every day. It’s challenging to be present and to hear each story with a clear and open heart. All of the stories I hear are moving in their own way. I love to hear stories about  our ablility to support entire families that are going through the diagnosis of a loved one, just as much as I love the story about helping one person. I think the stories that I connect with the most are from the young survivors that we cast. Casting the breasts or non-breasts of these women is a very intimate, personal and vulnerable experience. I honor that they trust me and are able to bear all for me. I love to see their faces when we are done, and the overwhelming feeling that I’ve given them something that has helped them through their breast cancer journey in some way.

What is your motivation for opening a non-profit?

The motivation came from the people, Keep A Breast was inteded to be a single event 11 years ago, however, people’s interest has kept it going year after year. Keep A Breast grew all on its own with the support of the community of artists and activists that created it. The need for more information is the motivation.

What is the most innovative thing you have ever done?

Everything has been done—I have not had any new ideas. “Boobies” have always been around and they have always been loved. The innovation is our approach. I look at everything we do, and I automatically research to see what’s been done before. I drive my team crazy sometimes, because I turn everything that exists inside out, and I’m not afraid to question the status quo and stick my neck out for my beliefs. We innovate in our unique approach to educate teens using their voices through avenues they are passionate about.

What is the biggest impact you have made?

The biggest impact comes from the testimonials we have from young people across the globe. Whether it be an email saying they were able to talk about a family member’s diagnosis, or that they found a lump early, or found an ally in their personal struggle with breast cancer through Keep A Breast. Each testimonial is what gets me out of bed in the morning.

How do you measure your impact?

We have been working on a research study on the youth perceptions of breast cancer that we will publish this year. I’m excited to share this information with the world and I hope that other organizations, corporations, and the medical community will be able to use the data to help address the needs of young people affected by breast cancer. I also know that I have touched the lives of millions of teens through our events, traveling education booth and our cause merchandise. The generation of teens right now is extremely more informed about breast cancer than any other generation before them with information that will save their lives.

What are you passionate about?

I’m most passionate about truth and fairness. I believe everyone has the right to eat healthy food free of pesticides, hormones, and chemicals. I believe that products on our grocers’ shelves should have higher standards and should be safe to use in our homes and on our bodies. It’s not fair that we are plagued by disease because our government does not protect us. However, I believe that true love always prevails.

What values do you live by?

My core values are family, friends and living my truth. I learn a lot from my mom and I’m inspired by her mantra, “come from love”. I try my best to always come from a place of love with everything I do. I’m not perfect, and I stress out because I have so much responsibility in this world to all the people around me and to the public in general. I’ve chosen this path that some think is crazy, but I know I have the full support of so many people and the universe to succeed in my mission. My mom’s other mantra is “choose love over fear”. I live by this because I would always rather make a choice from love and get hurt and learn a hard lesson than to not have made that choice in the first place.

What is the best advice you’ve been given?

Nothing groundbreaking—the usual stuff. “It’s not about you” and “Don’t take it personal.” Keep A Breast is known globally as the largest youth-based breast cancer prevention organization. I have had to put myself out there publicly, for all to judge. Some people consider Keep A Breast to be controversial—I’ve received hate mail. I can’t say it didn’t hurt or make me question what the hell I’m doing, but I am surrounded by good people, reminding me to follow my heart and stick to my guns.

What is the best advice you have ever given?

I usually stray away from giving advice. I like to help people come to their own conclusions so they end up taking their own advice.

What advice would you give corporations who want to get involved with a cause?

Do it for the right reasons, and be authentic about it. Email me.

What rules or principles run, lead and inspire Keep A Breast?

Making sure I am still able to live a balanced life full of yoga, shoe sales and lunch breaks with my dog Camper. Although a day is never the same between casting young survivors in the “Treasured Chest Program”, to traveling across the globe with our “Traveling Education Booth”, or developing the ever expanding Keep A Breast Foundation’s line of cause merchandise that allows young people to give back. We do keep it balanced with our “Let My People Love Their Life” policy, which allows each employee a flexible work schedule, as long as their work gets done with no negative impact to others. This policy is intended for events and circumstances that will increase the richness and quality of their lives.

Not so long ago life for a CMO was a lot simpler than it is today. A brand’s narrative was a controlled monologue and the formula for awareness involved nurturing and building the brand, partnering with an amazing agency, diligently targeting the right consumers in the most impressionable places, and spending enough dollars to support the broadcast of compelling advertising enough times to make an impression. The primary measure of success was counting the impressions of how often and how many people would see, hear or read an advertisement. Consumers didn’t talk back, engage or criticize. It was simple because everyone understood their role.

The game has changed and the rules are now being controlled by empowered consumers. While brand impressions help to inform the size of an audience and are still used to compare audiences across all types of media, impressions don’t measure interaction. They don’t measure engagement, expression or emotional connections. Awareness alone is one dimensional, whereas involvement expressed through consumer-created content and community engagement can create brand advocacy and involvement.

Like technology, the dynamics and dimensions of marketing are changing rapidly and they’ll likely be unrecognizable ten years from now. Consumer touch points have multiplied, as have the number of agency partners a CMO manages. Content created by consumers in a two-way dialog has replaced the one-size-fits-all approach to marketing. Consumers are an undeniable part of the process with a growing arsenal of tools to create and curate their own content around the brands they love. Technology enables them to share content on their networks and take an active part in a brand’s dialog. There is no doubt that marketing is still responsible for impressions, but it’s no longer just about the quantity, but rather the quality of impressions and how they’re made. It means that tomorrow’s CMO will have to be a master of all of the “C’s”: communication, creativity, consumer collaboration, community, creative curator, and also possess a huge dose of consideration.

Five uncommon sense tips for mastering all of the C’s in CMO:

1. It’s not your brand – it’s the consumer’s. You don’t own your brand – your consumer does. Inspire and enable your biggest fans to spread the love.

2. Create brand-relevant content that is so compelling, authentic and relevant that it can be used in every medium.

3. Fuel consumer-generated content by feeding consumers with content that touches their passion points. Understand how your consumers relate to your brand and fuel their engagement with relevant and provocative ideas. They’ll generate more connections for you than you ever will alone.

4. Be the ultimate CMO by fueling, encouraging and participating in conversations in your community, but don’t try to control them.

5. Experiment often by rapidly prototyping new ideas and quickly replicating successes, but be content with failures.

MOBILIZING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND PUTTING IT TO WORK

As Britain was dangerously close to defeat in 1940, Winston Churchill put the English language into battle. He inspired the people of Great Britain with his defiant, heroic speeches, rousing challenges that were full of hope, humor and direction. By using language strategically, he delivered some of the most powerful and moving speeches that were broadcast across Britain and the rest of the world, including Nazi-occupied Europe. History now attests to the power of his carefully chosen and skillfully delivered words that moved a nation and ultimately helped win an ideological war of good versus evil. As one of the world’s finest orators, Churchill is probably turning in his grave at what has happened to the English language.

Churchill had very few weapons at his disposal to fight the Nazis, so he was forced to rely on his oratory skills and his powerful command of the English language. Content was his currency. He set the linguistic standard with well-crafted monologues delivered with passion and authority. People were craving content with substance, inspiration and encouragement. His words were carefully choreographed with meaning and sincerity. Imagine Churchill today, as a master orator with all modern communication tools at his disposal. He would be a prolific blogger, his Twitter feed would be constantly active, and he would have one of the most visited websites on the Internet. Churchill utilized masterful content as his secret weapon—content was his currency and his means of mobilizing a nation to action.

STICKS AND STONES WILL BREAK YOUR BONES BUT CONTENT CAN IMPACT YOUR STOCK PRICE 

Leaders today can learn from Churchill. When the correct words are used with sincerity and passion they have a mobilizing and lasting impact: they can affect employee morale, consumer relationships and impact your companies’ stock price. Great communication is an art and a science and needs to be treated as one of the most valuable currencies of your organization. Many companies have their obligatory mission statement framed in their offices but never use them to guide strategy or communication. Authentic communication as a meaningful currency comes from the soul of a company and is the first step to achieving a clear understanding and to answer why you really exist as a company. Crafting a compelling and living purpose with words that are carefully connected, easily understood, and passionately consumed is the foundation for meaningful communication.

An untapped opportunity for innovation in many organizations is helping executive leadership teams to understand the implications of great communication as a currency for change and ultimately for profit. The personalities of the CEO and senior executives definitely set the tone for how a company’s culture and internal content manifests, but many fail to understand that they indirectly affect external content as well. Content should be a living strategy and a currency traded between employees, customers and consumers, and it is equally important to the actual product a company produces.

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

Just because your company can broadcast content via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, does not necessarily mean people are interested in what it has to say. People are drawn in by those who can entertain, educate, or intrigue them. Meaningless and forgettable content is ignored. Dull content is the equivalent of boring and meaningless conversations that are quickly forgotten. The digital world makes it easy for us to contribute opinions, narratives, pictures and videos to the conversation so it is much more difficult to stand out from the crowd. What your company talks about and how the content is delivered matters more now than ever before. Companies no longer have the luxury of communicating in a controlled monologue with consumers through traditional advertising. Technology creates an open environment where millions of people are vying for attention. With content as currency, companies must have something relevant, compelling and meaningful to say. Today, people respond to content that moves or entertains, so make sure your companies’ content is relevant and riveting.

TRAVEL STORIES WITH IDEO’S CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER PAUL BENNETT

I recently heard an amazing story from Paul that illustrated the power of quiet observation, saying less and listening more.

In 2009, Paul traveled to Grameen Bank an hour outside of Dhaka in Bangladesh as part of a corporate tour party, “Inside Grameen”. It was sweltering hot in the small stuffy branch office as various officials spoke about the glowing wonders of Grameen, its local workers, and Grameen Bank’s founder, the much-lauded Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. The small, sugary tea biscuits and strangely incongruous mini-bananas he was given to eat were melting and swarming with flies. He was surrounded by curious, gentle-eyed locals with gazes fixated on the guest speakers. The tea itself, made with local water, sat there; they were all too afraid to drink it. Paul tried to maintain the impression of being interested, trying to stay engaged, to act respectfully ceremonious, but the phrase “Poverty Tourism” kept ringing in the back of his mind.

Sitting in the back of three assembled rows of people was a mother and son. The son was a young man dressed in his smartest shirt and cleanest pants. The mother wore a bright green veil but Paul couldn’t see her eyes; she refused to look at Paul, resolutely staring down. He got the sense that she did not understand much of the hoopla that was going on and probably felt a bit forced into the situation. They were sitting next to two other young men and two young women, all of whom were clearly model Grameen protégés. Each person falteringly told a story of how Grameen had helped them, but it is the story of this mother and son that really stuck with Paul.

Yunus began telling her story, explaining how she was illiterate and did not speak any English, but more importantly, she was consumed by her shame, hence the hanging of her head. She had been a beggar, abandoned by her husband at a very young age and forced to live on the street. One of her three young children had died. She was penniless and had no choice but to beg trawling from person to person for money to feed her children first and then herself. She had often feared that her other children might die.

Eventually, after hearing about it through a local community network, she had asked for and been granted a Grameen Bank “Struggler” Loan. She explained that they are called “Struggler Loans” and not “Beggar Loans” for a reason: because everyone is struggling, some more than others. The loan she took out was the equivalent of $12. With that money, she bought a cow; Grameen’s 16 Decisions philosophy dictates that any money loaned not only goes towards purchases, but more importantly, towards changing a person’s life fundamentally. Although she only earned a small amount of money with the cow she was able to repay her loan plus the accumulated interest. Horrified to learn that they charged a street-beggar interest, Paul later discovered that interest was in itself a form of dignity, that everyone, whatever their circumstances, is taken seriously as a customer and charged accordingly.

After many years, she bought another cow. Following another of the 16 Decisions, Yunus had to put a child through school as part of Grameen’s explicit written social contract that the money was to be “invested” somehow in the borrower’s future. Her future was her son. For years and years she struggled to put him through school, and eventually he was accepted to a university in Bangladesh. And, he had just graduated from college at the top ten percent of his class with a degree in mathematics.

After Yunus spoke, Paul went up to the mother and son. She looked up tentatively through her veil as Paul asked her son for his contact information. Paul said to him: “Your mother must be so proud of you.” “No Sir,” he replied without a moment’s hesitation, “I am so proud of my mother.”

Why did Paul tell me this story? He learned two things from that trip. First, that it’s so rare in life we get to see for ourselves the first-hand impact of the things that we do, but when we do, it’s truly powerful. To truly connect, even if it’s through one person and their story, speaks volumes over any number of anonymous statistics and pie charts. Paul has read countless books and white papers on micro-finance and its effects, but seeing the impact on one family convinced him a million times more than reading about it in print.

Secondly, Paul learned an important lesson about the function of business. A successful business is not about transaction, it is about meaning. It is about empathy, morality and humility. It is not about the quantity of big bold interactions, but the quality of small, intimate ones. Grameen happens to be a bank, but it is operating from a place of higher purpose, to elevate the lives of its customers. As Paul said, “It’s not a bank, it’s a dignity-engine.”

HE WHO DARES WINS.

Without courage, companies, like individuals, live in a place of permanent uncertainty and weakness. Without bravery, perseverance and honesty there is little hope for change in circumstance and zero chance of achieving one’s full potential. Those who live in a state of fear wait endlessly for others to make the next move and operate with uncertainty, reacting to others. They are relegated to miserable vulnerability and insecurity.

Courage is the essential ingredient for both survival and growth, and as my hero Winston Churchill so eloquently put it, “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the quality that guarantees all others.” It’s evident at birth and embedded into the first steps that an individual or a company takes, or it’s found as a result of hardship and circumstance. Without courage we go nowhere.

As a transformational force, courage contains three uncommon sense ingredients:

1. Bravery: standing up for what is right in difficult situations; acting in spite of disapproval; acting against one’s own natural inclinations and facing fears.
2. Perseverance: continuing along a path in the midst of opposition and perhaps failure; pursuing a goal in spite of obstacles; suppressing the desire to give up.
3. Honesty: integrity in all areas of a company or individual’s life, being true to oneself and one’s role in the world across circumstances.

Whether you’re a CEO, an executive, a manager or a student, you need to have the courage to make tough decisions about what next. The following are six uncommon sense recommendations for making courageous choices for new thinking:

1. HAVE THE COURAGE TO ASK WHY

Spend any time around a five year-old, and you’ll hear them ask “Why?” constantly. Their lack of self-awareness enables them to absorb information and seek knowledge constantly. As we grow up and enter the workplace, lacking knowledge is, for many, a sign of weakness. The result is people often sit in meetings and, rather than admit they don’t understand the subject, they’ll fake it, and waste a perfect opportunity for learning. There’s something very liberating about admitting you’re the dumbest one in the room and acting like a sponge.

Do you:

• Have the courage to ask why?
• Have the courage to be the dumb one in the room?
• Have the courage to ask about actions that need exploration?

2. HAVE THE COURAGE TO STAND OUT

It sounds like such obvious advice, but stand back and ask yourself if you honestly stand apart from the competition. Think about American Airlines, Delta, United and Continental—cover up the logos and you get the same absolutely average experience with nearly no differentiation. But imagine the difference it would make if American Airlines started translating what being American means into the customer experience or imagine if United started actually uniting in meaningful ways with its passengers.

Do you:

• Have the courage to lead and not to follow the competition?
• Have the courage to decide who and what you want to be?
• Have the courage not to take the easy way out?
• Have the courage to be bold, brave and take charge?

3. HAVE THE COURAGE TO STAND FOR SOMETHING

People are inherently good and, deep down, they want to make a difference in the world. That’s one of the reasons consumers are relating so strongly to brands that stand for something greater than the product itself. Look at the meteoric rise and brilliance of Apple in all of its beautiful forms. It has revolutionized how we think about computing, music, and phones among other things. Apple is a brand with a fanatical following and has significant opportunity to affect change on any issue it chooses to engage in. But what have they done with this permission to stand for something significant? Arguably this hasn’t impacted their balance sheet or the ravenous demand for their products, but imagine what difference they could make if they stood for something?

Do you:

• Have the courage to define values that are directional and meaningful?
• Have the courage to make sure your values are clear, memorable and actionable?
• Have the courage to measure your performance and that of your people against your values?

4. HAVE THE COURAGE TO SAY NO 

Companies and individuals are generally people pleasers, with the compulsion to say yes. Peer pressure, fads and demand often force decisions that create a lack of conviction, complication and confusion. As the US economy took a tumble, luxury automotive manufacturers could have opted to create more economical models that suited to the demand of what the masses could afford. Instead, the likes of Bentley and Ferrari stuck to their guns, weathered the storm and remained true to who they are and the consumers they cater to.

Do you:

• Have the courage to be totally comfortable with who you are?
• Have the courage to say no to distractions?
• Have the courage to make tough choices?
• Have the courage to say what others are thinking?
• Have the courage to fire people who are under-performing and don’t fit your organization?

5. HAVE THE COURAGE TO CHANGE

It takes a large bucket of courage to admit you’re going down the wrong path and then to change direction, especially when the entire category and the rest of the business world has their eyes on you. In 2009, Starbucks hit one of the most challenging times in their history because they had expanded rapidly and, in some places, over-saturated the market. They lost focus on the core coffee experience by adding too many unrelated items and the obvious onslaught of the economic downturn affected them as well. Howard Shutlz had the courage to return and immediately work to fix, simplify and change the direction of the business. He took it back to the brilliant basics and looked hard at what the business needed to change. Bulldog Drummond had the privilege of designing and facilitating an executive “What Next?” summit to help guide a conversation to chart the future of the brand. Mr. Schultz had courage to change paths and the results now speak for themselves.

Do you:

• Have the courage to take responsibility for mistakes made under your leadership?
• Have the courage to change direction when it’s not working?
• Have the courage to kill products that don’t fit but are making money?
• Have the courage to ask for help?

Back to Winston Churchill’s eloquent view that if courage is the first of human, and therefore corporate, qualities (as it guarantees the success of all others), now’s a good time to evaluate how courageous you are. Measure whether you’re brave, persistent and honest, and then do the same with your department and the company you’re a part of.

Can you be more courageous?

It’s rumored that in 1887 a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior: “A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”

If we’re going to avoid this path, it’s time for the leaders of this country to start leading. It’s time for them to open their eyes and ears and listen to what the country expects of them: responsible decisions that will put us on a path of sustainable growth. It’s time to close their mouths and stop jockeying for popularity, worrying about reelection, and focus on formulating a path to break the status quo. Now is the time for them to shut off the rhetoric, the posturing, backbiting and finger pointing and step up and make the hard decisions to restore this country’s stature as a nation that can be trusted. Now is the time for world class leadership and thoughtful leadership around the world.