Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 1068: The Ad-Meter

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“Then the Lord brought Abram outside beneath the night sky and told him, ‘Look into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that – too many to count!’ And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord declared him righteous because of his faith.”

I am writing this the week before SuperBowl, so I have no idea which advertisement will come out on top of the “Ad-Meter” on Monday AM.  Here is my prediction though:  The winner will have highlight an animal, or a small child, or something outlandishly on the edge as the subject matter.  We will see and for sure, we will all be watching.  The SuperBowl is an American moment.  We stop and gather around the TVs in living rooms, restaurants, bars, etc. across the country to watch one game.  Companies all know, going back to the beginning that this remains one of the most impacting points in time to launch or showcase a product, service or company.  We can be assured that the big bucks being spent to buy the time is backed up with big dollars to produce these ads.  I only worked for one company that every bought SuperBowl ad time and that was PepsiCo.  I can tell you from experience that we were just as excited to see our products being aired during this time as we were to watch the game. The ads shown externally can/will be powerful messages internally as we all like to show, tell and have others like what we do and where we work. Companies show off during the SuperBowl and then they have to be able to back up it all up come Monday when the expectations become high.  So, let’s see what the “Ad-Meter” says on Monday and then let’s see who backs it up most powerfully and successfully with their actions.

SuperBowl ads remind me of what God was telling Abram (later Abraham) about what he could expect in the future when God took him outside and told Abram to look into the sky and count the stars; “Then the Lord brought Abram outside beneath the night sky and told him, ‘Look into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that – too many to count!’ And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord declared him righteous because of his faith.” It’s one thing to tell, it is another thing to be able to show while telling. Being able to back up who you are, what you want to do, and what others can expect from you, with a real-life story and something to point towards to show someone else what you say can and will happen is very powerful. If you can show versus just tell it is only making true the adage, “actions speak louder than words”. As we all know, we are judged and evaluated by our actions way more than our words. As you think about today and what you have on your agenda, what is it that you can point to and show versus just say and tell? You may find that the more you show the stronger the message and the more others will look to you as one who follows through and lives your words out not just through your words, but through your actions. That level of credibility opens up all kinds of possibilities for you. This way your life, as you live it, is more than just the results of an “Ad-Meter”.

Reference: Genesis 15:4-6 (New Living Testament)