I love watching Gordon Ramsay's "Hell's Kitchen." So when the new season started last week, I was sure to tune in. As they usually do during the first episode, the teams were sent off to brainstorm their new team names. Lacey -- who I really hope is kicked out of Hell's Kitchen really soon, really -- was telling the camera how "stupid" some of her teammates' ideas for team names were.

My mind immediately thought of brainstorming with my teammates here at Hammock where we don't believe ideas are "stupid." One person's silly or outlandish or this-will-never-work suggestion might just be exactly what the next person needs to hear to come up with an award-winning idea. Our team is cool like that.

So, I conducted a little roundtable experiment. With no goal at all in mind, I sent a phrase -- purple monkeys make the best pets -- to one of my awesome colleagues and asked her to add the very first thing that came to mind, then send it on to another colleague for the same. I just wanted to see where our collective thoughts might go. Here's where the train took us:

• "Monkeys and all other primates are the most frightening animals on the planet."
• "The cutest Persian cat named Oscar was in the paper this weekend—I haven't been able to get him off my mind!"
• "Cats freak me out. They're always looking at you like they know something you don't."
• "I like dogs better than cats; I am in the process of trying to adopt a 5- to 7-year-old medium-sized dog."
• "I like adopting dogs, and the Middle Tennessee Golden Retriever Rescue has 15 that need homes (some are older and some are puppies)."
• "Cats are awesome because they don't take **** off anyone, and they are super intelligent and intuitive."

So, we talked about the color purple, primates, fear, cats, dogs, adoption, newspapers and intuition all in a span of just minutes. My point: Don't discount the ideas of the folks around you. Although one idea may not be the best, it may be the perfect jumping-off point for another one that is!

You know we at Hammock love a good t-shirt! And we love a good story, too.

There's a guy named Jason in Florida working comfortably in jeans and a t-shirt today. And tomorrow, he'll have on a totally different t-shirt. For the right price.

Here's the scoop: Jason Sadler is selling the "ad space" that is his chest. On Jan. 1, the price was $1. Increasing one buck each day, on Dec. 31 the price will be $365. Companies (or individuals like his dad) can go to Iwearyourshirt.com and pick the day of the year they'd like to dress Jason with their logo. (He even says if you want him to wear a pink Care Bears t-shirt, he will.) Send him the t-shirt and the cost of that day, and you're set. But his calendar is filling quickly.

For the money and the tee, Jason will wear the shirt all day, take pictures which are posted to flickr, tweet about the tee, blog about the tee, and upload a video in and about the tee to YouTube and Vimeo. Many of our favorites!

By my calculations – please note, I still have nightmares that they will show up at my front door to take my bachelor's degree away because I passed algebra by the skin of my teeth – Jason will bring in more than $63,000 this year. Wearing t-shirts.

I love it. And I really wish I'd thought of it.

Why It's Important to Always Keep Your Readers in Mind

The talented designers, writers, editors and business gurus at Hammock work hand-in-hand with our clients on a daily basis. The relationships that we have built with these clients and the media we create for them allow us to be part of a great team for communicating with their members and readers.

Although we work for our clients, their members and readers make up the audience we keep in mind every day as we write, research and design. Our goal is to make our clients happy, but we know that connecting with our clients' members and readers is the key to our success. We work daily with them constantly in mind.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit and have lunch with 285 members of that ultimate audience at NFIB/Texas' Small Business Day at the Capitol. (Hammock works with the staff of NFIB in managing NFIB.com and publishing MyBusiness magazine.) NFIB members from all across the state took the time away from their businesses to hear about legislation important to the way they run their businesses, meet with their lawmakers, and share stories of challenges and victories with their fellow small business owners. It was a great chance to get face-to-face with some of the folks that we strive to keep top-of-mind every day.

Whether they be marines, small business owners or descendants of Revolutionary Patriots, keeping our clients' members at the forefront of our minds drives us to do our best. Every day.