Here at the 16th best place to work, ever*, we recycle. We built a custom recycling bin system so we can more efficiently sort our stuff before an awesome local company comes to pick it up, we have a dishwasher instead of paper coffee cups, and we even have a colony of worms chewing up our organic waste and turning it into compost for our flower beds.
But we still had garbage cans. Lots of them. One under every ...
When I interviewed for my PR job here at MERCURYcsc, I knew I was walking into an airy, contemporary office where creativity and ideas must be on fire. I understood the Mercurians, whose profiles I'd read on the website, were all interesting people, doing good work while free-timing with surfing, spelunking, farming, fly fishing, crafting Adirondack chairs, photography, big game hunting and of course skiing. I didn't know I would laugh with my coworkers every day—and I ...
Photo by Mike Harrelson.
In a world where it seems we're never more than three LinkedIn connections away from anyone, I'd venture to say there's no form of marketing more effective than having happy people work for you.
And this is coming from the owner of an ad agency, mind you.
We are in the business of creating marketing ideas that help our clients sell more products. Yet running a good campaign is not the solution to ...
There's plenty of reasons I love living in Montana. Looking out the window from my desk, I'm smacked in the face with one of the main ones. The scenery. It's beautiful here. But it's more than that. After going to art school in a big city and spending the first part of my career fighting the day to day grind in a metropolitan area, the mountain life called my name. And while I've never looked ...
A good Moscow Mule is hard to come by. A traditional Moscow Mule must be served in a copper mug. I don't really know the reason for this, and do not even know if there is one. The only explanation I've ever gotten is that "it has something to do with the oxidation", whatever that means. My guess is that it sets this cocktail apart from all of the millions of other vodka concoctions out there. The reason ...
When in Rome (or at the 2011 Rose Bowl), do as Romans do (or as the victorious TCU Horned Frogs do).
Well, we did it. We survived a month with the rotting cage. Check out the video to get a firsthand look at what happened to the gravy, stuffing and turkey after 30 days. And head to rottenchristmas.com to see the whole project.
Holidays have taken on their own traditions here at MercuryCSC. We've done everything from a 24-hour sled-a-thon to raise awareness for land conservation to hanging on the side of our building to raise money for homelessness. This year, we decided to conduct an experiment about the foods we eat around Christmas-time. It's based on Michael Pollan's premise to "eat only foods that will eventually rot". Follow us through the Christmas season as we have a little fun ...
It has been a couple month since my last chicken update. The chicks are doing well. They're 5 months old now and they no longer live in the dining room -- they have been happily residing in their big girl house for about 3 months.
As would be expected, a few things have changed in the last few months. For one, they're no longer chicks. The final count: 5 hens, 1 rooster. Chicken a la Charlie is a man-bird ...
I went to Lewistown this autumn on a quick road trip to see my son run in a cross country meet. Yes, I drove two and a half hours one way to watch my son run for fifteen minutes. Isn’t that a sign of a true Montanan? Distance doesn’t matter?
After his race we spent some time in Dan’s Sporting Goods. This store has everything from ropes and guns to jewelry and chokecherry ...
Many of us in marketing are numb to the actual message in advertising as we are too busy picking it apart to see if it is on brand or has the proper call to action. So, the other day, during my very short drive to the office an ad came on for the Citizen's Police Academy — the city police force's community outreach program. Touting such features as a tour of ...
By the time Indian summer rolls around here at the 45th parallel, avid mountain bikers are looking to tick a few big, definitive rides before the snow flies. Definitive, in our circle, equals a full-day outing with lots of mileage and vertical relief. The climb(s) must be sustained, nearly anaerobic lung busters, and yet just barely do-able. The switchbacks should be tight, yet ride-able without a dab. Not seeing another soul (outside of your carefully chosen posse) accentuates the ...
“Small can be an advantage” I heard recently in Butte, Montana.
No kidding. Where else—who else—in the world gets to hear four of the top CEOs in the world all before lunch?!
But that’s what we got in little old Butte, Montana on Monday morning when Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, Jeff Immelt of GE and Barry Diller of Expedia took the stage. Okay, Buffett was via satellite, but let’s not nitpick ...
Heading home from Outdoor Retailer a month or so ago, I was raving about electronic boarding passes. I had heard about this concept, but I had not been privy to it, until this trip. These electronic boarding passes are only available from some airlines, in some airports. News articles predict that by 2014, as many as 15 billion people will be using electronic boarding passes. And now I was getting to try ‘em out. Feeling very technologically savvy, I headed ...
As an avid fly-fisherman living in one of the most pristine blue ribbon trout meccas of North America I'm constantly buying new gear and then eventually replacing it with better gear. So when Mercury told us that our next Geotravel inspired field trip would be to the Simms factory here in Bozeman I rescheduled my meetings and signed up to find out how my new waders were actually going ...
On Thursday the MercuryCSC crew took a field trip to Three Forks, Mont. to talk a bit of business and explore the history and unique personality of the town. So as not to take it over in one swarming mass we broke into smaller scouting parties and, with the Sacajawea Hotel as our center point, set out smart-phone in hand to take it in pieces. However, one group, lured by the soft green felt of the pool tables, abundant wifi ...
I found a website last March which promised to tell me what was in season locally. All sorts of excited, I clicked and entered the month and my zipcode. It laughed at me. I got nothing. So I entered June, and the zip. The best the site could do was potatoes from North Dakota.
So I planted a garden. There would be no North Dakotan potatoes for this girl. (Sorry North Dakota, your potatoes ...
One of the pitfalls (best parts?) of living in Montana is it’s really big. Getting to the other side of the state can take all day. In the other places I’ve lived, going to the printer for a press check meant running across town to check things out and then darting back before anyone else had even realized that you were gone. But, my friends, this is Montana.
On a recent Tuesday afternoon I found out that I ...
Next door to our hometown of Bozeman is Belgrade, Montana, population 8,185. Hugging the tracks of the old Northern Pacific, Belgrade once served as a destination for grain trucks ready to disgorge their loads. In the last 20 years, many of the the surrounding fields have turned into suburbs, but the town of Belgrade still retains stubborn vestiges of its agricultural heritage. It's hard not to like a town where the high rises are grain elevators and the ...
