James Ford Murphy — Pixar, Director of Lava

Who was your favorite speaker?

James Ford Murphy

What was the most helpful lesson you learned?

1) Connect emotionally

2) Use stories to explain concepts and pick multiple ways of conveying a message so you don’t fall in love with one single approach.

Which strategies and tactics can you apply to social media, analytics and your campaigns?

James told his story using all images (pictures and videos) on his slides — no words. The old adage says a picture is worth 1,000 words. Without text-based words on the slide, he was able to tell his story on his own terms, through his voice — which naturally adds emotion.

He walked us through the process of his life as tangible moments, using story, purpose, and meaning, and brought life to the navigation of his creativity. This strategy not only helped the audience connect with him personally, but it also applied a macrocosmic tone that everyone can understand. His approach is extremely valuable in developing a successful social media campaign. We need to walk our audience through the campaign and make them feel a part of the process. In addition, we need to help them discover meaning in their lives that transcends the campaign.

Connecting emotionally is critically important to our social media campaign. We need to use emotion as much as possible to connect with our audience. In order to capitalize on emotion, we must understand and convey what cohesively motivates us and them.

Did the speakers reinforce or remind you of anything we’ve learned in this class?

Yes, mission, intuition, emotion, stories, creativity, and analytics were ever-present in James’ presentation. He is driven by a creative process, that he always trusts. Our class is completely dependent on the process, established in the text: how, when, where, what, who, and why. In addition, he breaks things down to the essentials, in order to personalize and make believable every step of his work. For example, the use of his own ukulele song and playing it with traditional Hawaiian singers added a personal touch to Lava that is only evident, when he includes it, as part of the story. However, as he conveyed, it was such a critical aspect of the short film that could not be replaced.

What surprised you?

His enthusiasm. Going to work every day to create happiness and meaningful experiences must be rewarding, but constantly recreating amazing work, as Pixar does, speaks to his authentic character and the character of the company. I thought his best advice was “Creativity is a muscle. You have to work it out.” This quote sums up his approach to life and helps us understand that everything is a process that can be worked out. We must define the intangible to reach tangible goals.

Anything else to add?

Lava is an amazing film, and provides an insane amount of value for only 7 minutes of runtime. Creative passion is ubiquitous in the film, and carries incredible meaning with James’ presentation providing a 360 degree view of its creation. I would love to be a part of something that meaningful; his story was truly inspiring.