Jennifer Deal

• I am inspired when I can lead and see the fruits of the leadership grow.
• I am motivated to see others grow and do great things.
• I am inspired when I am told I've done a good job and encouraged to keep thinking of ideas to help grow our clients and our firm.
• I read the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and blogs (when possible) to understand the outside world around me. Often, those readings spark a light bulb in how it directly relates to our business. I share articles and publications with co-workers and encourage them to do the same.
• I study/research what others are doing to create ideas—books are a good resource. I recently read Death by Meeting and others such as The Leadership Genius of George W. Bush. Both of these include tactical things you can do.
• The people I work with inspire me. They truly make me see the world differently. I look to them to poke holes in my thinking, which allows me to take my ideas to another level.
• I'm motivated within my inner self to do great—to prove to myself that I can do more than I ever thought possible.

Aimee McDermott

Whenever I am engaged in some sort of physical activity, I really feel like my brain can function at its best. My favorites and those that inspire me most are figure skating, running, hiking, and biking.

Gail Cosby

I am inspired:

• by the Lennon-McCartney lyrics of "In My Life" and Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi;”
• when listening to Aaron Copeland’s “Appalachian Spring;”
• by Mahatma Gandhi's quote, "Truth and love have always triumphed over tyranny throughout history. Always.”
• by the bright, iridescent green color of moss after a rain in winter when everything else is brown and gray;
• by travel, because I believe, like Mark Twain, that “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. Broad, wholesome, charitable views cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth.”
• by the April wildflowers that line the Appalachian Trail on the spine of the Great Smoky Mountains;
• by the friendly, considerate people and unpolluted environment of New Zealand;
• by the smell of freshly mown grass on a summer day; and
• by the paintings of Van Gogh, Cezanne and John Singer Sargent.

Rob Sutherland

• Thinking is something I typically do aloud—either talking to myself or writing notes and drawing sketches on paper.
• Even though my grades would never reflect this, I like to study. I'm inspired by the works of others and challenged to make my own mark—to yank into reality or concreteness all the ideas and thoughts and emotions waffling about in my head.
• I'm inspired by the attitudes of my kids. Nothing is better than walking into a house and having a beautiful girl and rugged boys running at you wanting nothing but a hug. Some say those days will stop, but I'm inspired by the idea that they won't. The greeting may change, but I firmly believe that my kids will always be eager to greet me just as I'm always eager to greet them.
• I'm inspired by watching and listening to Amy Kate, my 5-year-old, read. As she learns and gets excited when she can pronounce that new word, I'm reminded that the simple things in life are really what it is about.
• I'm inspired by normal lives that accomplish something.
• I'm inspired by how much my God loves me—how intimately He wants to know me and to be known by me, that His desire is to call me (and you) "friend," that it isn't about what I do and don't do, but about how I respond to what He has already done.

Mac Logue

• I find inspiration in the great writers: Robert Frost, John Steinbeck, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams. I find the poets more applicable to advertising than other writers, because they are forced to say so much in such a small space. I also love to read Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln: two men who understood how to paint pictures with words.
• I find visual inspiration in any number of photographers: Andre Kertesz, Josef Sudek, Walker Evans, Yousuf Karsh, and Ansel Adams. These are people who understood how to create a visual metaphor.

Laura Hall

• I am most creative when I journal. I am most influenced by my relationship with Christ, the things I learn through the Word and how He is actively working in my life. This goes hand-in-hand with my journaling. My journals are usually written to God or they are questions about Him.
• Music is very influential to my design. I find it so interesting to see how a design can carry on the mood or personality of the music I am listening to.
• New York City and traveling are sources of inspiration. I find my mind thinks more when faced with new experiences. It gets me away from the almost mechanical day-to-day schedule. I love to focus on those little things that most people walk right by and never notice—graffiti, paint chipping, layers of old signs, cracks in the sidewalk, children playing in Central Park.
• I love to hear my grandmother talk—all of her stories, her view on life, and her view on love. And my mind latches onto memories of my grandfather—his wrinkled hands, his straw hat, his striped shirt, the green plastic bins that he used to collect strawberries.
• Painting, drawing, and reading inspire me. All these things make me fall into another world. I forget where I am and I consumed with every brush stroke, the feel of the charcoal in my hand, and every word I read.

Bryan Clendenen

What inspires me? LOVE.

• + I love a good downpour, falling from the heavens, weeping down my window pane
• + I love looking through the lens of a camera, capturing one moment in time—for all time
• + I love the open road, taking me to places unknown, places to discover new experiences
• + I love the beautiful beats and lyrics that speak to the soul of life, love, sorrow, joy, endearment
• + I love pushing the limits of the subconscious, the creative being, the limits of time
• + I love the perfection, the talented, the resplendent works of a creative mind
• + I love what God has given us, that part of the physical world that is removed from human habitation
• + I love life, and all those who I can share and experience it with
• LOVE.

Shelly Cato

There are different kinds of thinking, and the ability to think creatively is a gift. The incredibly logical thinker may not be creative, and the creative thinker may not be logical. Either done well emanates, most certainly, from a gifted person, but this gift must be nurtured, exercised, and pressed into new shapes and places. Even the mind of an agile thinker can lose its edge, becoming dull when not excited. And so, here are things that excite my thinking, things in life that take my breath away:

• love—first love, heart-catching, mind-altering, there is no feeling like it on this earth love;
• eyes—the irises of my children, blue-gray and green with yellow and turquoise flecks, and always changing with the light;
• Edward Hopper’s, “House by the Railroad,” its eerie emptiness, how it forbears the future and speaks of inevitability;
• anonymity—being alone in a city on a busy street at night—I know no one and am nobody;
• Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and her creation of a character with the purest, most unselfish being;
• Rauschenberg’s, “Bed,” because he thinks in new ways and constructs unified works from disparate elements;
• the sounds of Imogen Heap;
• Edith Wharton’s novels, by letting me glimpse 20th century New York society, and showing me the sweet desperation of humanity;
• the depth of color in Mark Rothko’s paintings, all together in a white room;
• e.e. cummings saying, “existing’s tricky, but to live’s a gift;”
• George Nelson’s clocks and Frank Gehry’s furniture;
• the psalms of David, “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth;”
• all Andy Goldsworthy sculpture;
• James Galvin’s poetry—“Anything can happen under a sky like this.” I believe that it can.

Sean Doyle

What inspires me most is ideas—radical, smart ideas. Attached is a link of talks from Tim Keller, the man whose vision and ideas are changing, have changed New York City. Wow! That inspires me. I would like to share these talks and this man and church as my "inspires me the most" idea.

Andy Birdwell

I am inspired by:

• insomnia—Sometimes on the verge of sleep I am awakened by an idea or a thought. In that hazy state is where problems get solved, solutions are formulated, the impossible seems possible, and the future is mapped out before me. I may not be able to sleep for hours after these epiphanies, but I awake refreshed anyway;
• Nicole;
• my friends, all of them;
• turning three chords into pure magic;
• urethene rolling beneath my feet;
• staring at an amazing piece of art with equal parts jealousy and admiration;
• a picture-perfect cast;
• a picture-perfect drive;
• snapping an imperfect picture;
• reading biographies—truth is stranger than fiction;
• a meat and three;
• chili cheese dogs; and
• Pawleys Island, South Carolina; San Diego, California; Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York; and Birmingham, Alabama.

Randal Snook

• enjoying time with family and friends
• helping someone in need inspires me - remembering how fortunate I am
• creation - especially water - a glacial lake in montana, a slow river in the ozarks or the aquamarine intensity of bermuda
• written - schaeffer, lewis, piper, murray and keller
• visual - renior, bougureau, donatello, rand, and van der rohe

Debbie Bartoletti

Creative and insightful thoughts come to all of us in regard to the situations we face in life. The trick is to be aware enough to catch them, to notice their significance, and, if they withstand the light of sober and unbiased evaluation, to act on them. Inspiration comes to me through many different things and experiences that I have been honored to have over the years.

• It comes from my children who have taught me what loving unconditionally really means.
• It became extremely present when I hiked the Himalayas and met some of the most beautiful people in the world.
• My soul was stirred when we rode down the Ganges River and witnessed burial fires. This made me realize that we are only where we are in life by the true grace of God.
• I have been touched by being able to travel the world and experience life as it was truly meant to be experienced, natural, and without borders or colors.
• It comes from my father who taught me that honesty, integrity, and kindness are the most valuable virtues anyone can ever hope to have.
• It comes to me when I take time to stop and listen to the rain.
• It comes in preparing gourmet meals, even for everyday.
• It comes in riding down a lazy river just before dusk when the water is calm.
• It comes from being around really brilliant and creative people.
• It comes when watching my little girls ride horses side-by-side, galloping across a beautiful and lush green pasture.
• It comes from listening to music, for I find it stirs the soul.
• It comes from being a friend when someone really needs one.

Heather Dilling

I am motivated by my relationship with Christ.

What gets me thinking?

• a great sermon on Sunday;
• music;
• laughing with friends;
• a great book—my favorite is Redeeming Love;
• being outdoors, seeing nature; and
• watching my nephew learn something for the first time.

Eleanor Parker

My top five good places for thinking (in no particular order):

• my parents’ lake house;
• Central Park;
• sitting on the couch (preferably by a fire) with a cozy cat;
• poolside with a frozen beverage; and
• the car ride home from a thought-provoking movie.