Standing on the edge of a high dive. Calling a special someone for a first date. Bringing your face-to-face marking program to the next level. Taking that first step outside of your Comfort Zone seems scary, but with the right guidance, you'll find the dive exhilarating, the date romantic, and the
face-to-face successes unparalleled.

We're here to help you take the plunge by providing smarter solutions for today's evolving marketing landscape - click on the "Contact" link, and find out how (but let's stick to face-to-face marketing, and leave the dating advice to the experts).

I enjoyed sushi twice in the last few days - takeout for lunch on Friday, and the 'Sushi Special' for dinner on Sunday. Nothing any sushi aficionado would consider 'daring' in either meal - a spicy tuna maki, salmon, yellowtail and eel nigiri, a shrimp tempura roll, an Inferno roll.

What I found interesting (as I fought with my wife over the last piece of tempura roll) was the relativity of the Comfort Zone. I am a notoriously picky eater, and five years ago, sushi of any stripe was firmly ensconced in the List of Things I Shall Not Eat - even a California roll (the most vanilla of all sushi) was miles away from my culinary Comfort Zone.

It took combined shaming from my wife and brothers to finally try a California roll while on vacation last year, and - like Mikey and Life cereal - I liked it. I branched out (safe in the knowledge that whatever I didn't eat would be devoured by the rest of my family), expanding to more interesting rolls, nigiri, and sashimi - bringing us back to the past weekend's menu.

California rolls used to represent the height of daring for me - I would pat myself on the back for trying something so outrageous, so far outside my Comfort Zone. Today, I can't order California rolls because I find them boring -- too ordinary, too comfortable.

The Comfort Zone is not a static thing - as you step outside your Comfort Zone, what seemed dangerous becomes commonplace, driving us to look for a new opportunity to try something different. Consider what is outside your face-to-face marketing Comfort Zone today - will today's seemingly daring idea seem "old hat" next year, or the year after that? If it does, what happens to your program if you DON'T venture outside your Comfort Zone today?

In our industry, the need for ideas is fast (and/or furious) - when you're presented with a problem that needs a solution immediately, it can feel almost necessary to have one or two fall-back ideas to draw from. Me, I have an intense love for Pepper's Ghost (the turn-of-the-century theater trick for creating 'hologram' style illusions -if you've been to the Haunted Mansion at Disney World, you've seen Pepper's Ghost). I've considered it for projects about vaccines, about acid reflux disease, about making chocolate - something about the theatrically and low-tech approach really resonates with me.

When the clock is ticking and your need the answer RIGHT NOW, it's easy to go back to the well for the tried-and-true solution, adapting it to fit whatever the needs of the current firedrill might be. It's worth noting that my Pepper's Ghost recommendations rarely make it out of the first rounds of internal review, because (and I hate to admit it) it's usually the comfortable solution, not the right solution.

This post is a little therapeutic for me - admitting I have a problem is the first step. Those comfortable ideas will always be there (and I remain hopeful that the right project will come along someday for Pepper's Ghost...), but the challenge is to look past the easy answer and really think about what the objectives for the client, for the program are - almost always, those needs will lead us to solutions outside of our Comfort Zones, but we'll sleep easy knowing they're the right solutions.

Growing up in Pittsburgh meant annual pilgrimages to Kennywood, a local amusement park filled with classic rollercoasters, a vintage carousel, and an instrument of animal terror known as the SkyCoaster. The SkyCoaster is a ride in which you (and two people you wouldn't mind dying with) are strapped into a harness, hoisted back several hundred feet into the air, and then dropped - swinging back and forth in a (presumably) thrilling parabola.

On one family visit to the park, my brothers and father decided that this was the year to ride the SkyCoaster. True confession - heights (specifically, falling from those heights) are strictly outside of my Comfort Zone. I bowed out, leaving my brothers and father to their adventure. Of course, they emerged from the ride unscathed, and the rest of the trip was devoted to listening to them recount the anxiety they felt as they were slowly hoisted to the top of the tower, the agonizing wait before being dropped, the exhilaration of soaring through the sky.

Even visiting the park today, with my own kids, I can't help but tell my kids the story of the time Pap and their uncles rode the SkyCoaster, carefully editing out the part of the story where I chicken out at the last minute and wishing I had lived the experience instead of living it vicariously through my brothers.

When we walk the floor at any given trade show, it's usually pretty easy to spot the exhibitors that stepped outside their Comfort Zones, that are trying something new. Don't live vicariously through your competitors - let them live vicariously through you.

PS - I have every intention of facing my demons via the Insanity ride atop the Stratosphere - who's with me? Visit us at booth #1621 for your chance to step outside your Comfort Zone with me.

Yesterday was a milestone day for the EXHIBITOR2011 architecture - one of the key steps in the creation of the Derse space is now complete, and the results are stunning. I don't want to spoil the surprise for when you see it for the first time, but let's just say it involves strings. Lots and lots (and lots) of strings.

Suffice it to say, we want to create a literal "Comfort Zone" within our space so that we can help guide you, gentle reader, out of this Comfort Zone and into something a little more exciting. The irony is (and unlike the titular stylings of Ms. Morissette, this really is ironic) to create the Comfort Zone architecture, our designers, detailers, and fabricators had to step outside of their own comfort zones to find the materials and experiences that will bring the idea of "comfort" to life.

Once you've seen the strings, let us know if you feel the same way.

Creating the videos you may have enjoyed on this site (and if you haven't yet, click 'back' and take a look) required us to plan a little bit differently - instead of scripting out the various scenarios, the process started with a simple conversation with our blissfully ignorant volunteers, centered around their personal comfort zones.

These conversations were enlightening - a chance to learn a little bit more about our coworkers, dive a little bit more deeply into their unique personalities (and then figure out ways to challenge them on-camera without having them quit*).

Going through that process with our internal team only highlighted our excitement to have the same conversations with YOU - click on the "Submit Your Story", or (better yet) visit us at booth #1621. We want to hear about where you're comfortable, and where you want to go from there. You may just learn something about the Derse team in the process (ask Tommy to serenade you with Bon Jovi if you don't believe me).

*Happily, no one quit (although Tina won't eat lunch with me anymore...)

A series of travel misfortunes found me in O'Hare, trying to check into my flight home - the online check-in wasn't working, and my reservation didn't include a seat number, so I was at the mercy of the self-serve kiosks at the ticketing counter.

When my turn at the kiosks finally arrived (apparently, touchscreens are outside the comfort zone of the majority of my fellow travellers), I found that I still did not have a seat assignment, and the flight was oversold. Capitalism being what it is which bought me 5" of extra legroom and (more importantly) a confirmed seat number.

The creature comfort of 5" of leg room isn't worth $19 to me, but removing the uncertainty of whether or not I would have a seat on the plane allowed me to focus on more important things (i.e., this blog post) while waiting to board.

Oftentimes, the most 'uncomfortable' aspect of stepping outside your Comfort Zone is the uncertainty – will this radical new idea work? Will it deliver the results that can justify additional effort or expense? At Derse, we have the luxury of leaning on Katharine and her crack team of research and measurement ninjas - they can help remove that uncertainty, providing quantifiable reasons why an exciting new strategy is right for a particular audience, or define and measure the results that come from that strategy.

We never step outside our Comfort Zones without a clear plan for where we're going, and what we expect to achieve once we get there - our seats on the plane, if you will. Come see us at EXHIBITOR2011 (booth #1621) and see how you can use Katharine's research-and-measurement-fu to pave your path outside the Comfort Zone.