Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

IN OUR WORLD

Hello Everyone!  I am coming to you live from Las Vegas where I have had the HONOR of working with one of my favorite clients at their annual production meeting.  I have been involved in about 4 of these meetings over the years and each time I come away with this unique feeling that I have been party to something that not only allows my ideas to gain traction resulting in real and true results, but more importantly changes the world.  Yep, I mean changes the world.

I have made it a policy never to mention my clients by name due to the fact I am mostly involved at the highest strategic level and this connection brings a responsibility to very specific goals that impact the performance of the company.  Please bear with me as I am committed to this policy, so this particular anonymous company will have to remain nameless.

What do I mean by changing the world?  Though they are gathered to discuss strategy, to improve their skill sets, to closely examine sales processes and to reward performance, they also have made a firm commitment to leave every community they come to meet in, better for having hosted their meeting.  They design a team building event that impacts the greater community thus combining the opportunity to forge bonds that carry to their business while simultaneously making a place better for having been there.

Through the years I have been an active participant in planning, filming and producing a unique video each of these incredible community events.  We have built bikes for unprivileged kids who would have never known the freedom that mobility brings.  I have seen 260 mostly unskilled professionals build a playground in the devastated 8^th Ward of New Orleans.  I have just finished an experience that lingers with me as I tap these keys.

In an extraordinary result of countless hours of planning, of never taking no for an answer, of the tireless work on a unique individual I saw a company, raise $500,000 for the military Wounded Warrior Program, build and ship almost 200 individual soldier care packages to be sent to the war zone, build an athletic field on a military base for soldiers who have virtually no recreation facilities, move on a goal of getting children and adults to write 3,000 cards to our warriors fighting on the front lines which resulted in over 23,000 cards.  Finishing off with inviting soldiers to a free concert.

How is the world changed?  By small, impactful steps.  By steps taking by nameless human beings who ask for nothing in return.  By Americans.  What a blessing I have been a part of the grace of perfect strangers.

THE ANNUAL TOP 10 AND BOTTOM 5 MOVIES OF 2009 LIST IS READY TO ROLL.  SEND ME A NOTE AND I WILL GET YOU A COPY

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

It is often hard for people and organizations to appreciate the impact of 1.  One is a simple thing, a single digit, a thing that we see as a limitation.  I can’t have just one potato chip.  You can’t have just one cookie.  One step doesn’t get me anywhere.

It’s OK, I get it.  I understand.  It’s just to damn simple to take on a one step project.  It can’t be impactful.  It can’t be important.  It can’t matter.

Funny, we all believe the longest journey starts with one step.  Why do we find it so hard to find value in the pursuit of one powerful thing?

In our 2010 strategic attack plan for a number of our clients I have in fact, pushed the idea of one.  I refer to it as the OLA strategy or the “ONE LEVEL ABOVE” program.

I have written about this in the context of the Client Experience Map, but I want to isolate this idea for this part of THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW.

If you were to spend quality time identifying just one thing you could do that would move your model forward, which would change your model in eyes of not only your clients, but your team.  If you followed a path of thinking around the selection of this one item could you be sure that it was the right one thing.  Maybe you need some help some facilitation.  That’s OK.  Spend what you need to make sure you feel confident in the one thing.

This one thing should move your current reality up, forward towards your best.  Remember the Law of Abundance – More is not better and better is not best!  Move to best.

Thinking about one thing, one thing that everyone can focus on, one thing that moves the model that allows you to set a horizon that everyone can engage with can make all the difference in the world!

One if fact is not the loneliest number, it is the most impactful!

ENTERTAINMENT

MOVIES: From Paris With Love looks like a reasonable shoot em up movie.  I loved The Edge of Darkness.  Best of the early 2010 season.

NetFlix Fans:  Mystery, Alaska: An old Russell Crowe movie that I just saw again and remembered how muck I liked it!

TV: Hey, I like TV, but my travel schedule often forces me to find gratification in the future, a future blessed by the god’s of TV in their gift of the DVR.  So when I get back, House, The Mentalist, and Burn Notice all await me.  Of course, the Super Bowl is the big ticket this week, but check the Nature Channel for reruns of The Planet Earth in hi-def!

BOOKS:  I, Sniper– Hunter:  If you are not a Bob Lee Swagger fan, shame on you!  Start at the beginning, with Point of Impact.  For us fans, this is the latest chapter which is bound to be filled with non stop action.

MUSIC: Just heard a cover band do this classic Police/Sting song and it reminded me of the mournful acoustic version that I LOVE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_FkwK24ZYY

WEB SITES: Funny and inappropriate at the same time.  A very funny combination.

http://failblog.org/

SOUTH OF NORMAL

Just back from Las Vegas, which may be South of Normal central!  Some observations:

• President Obama has the town in an uproar when he suggested (paraphrasing), “if you don’t have the money, and please don’t gamble.”  For some reason these were fighting words for this fair town.
• No matter what the time of day (I arrived at the airport at 5:30 AM) the line through security looks like the line at a U2 concert.  It is the only airport that when you are landing the flight crew warns you to be at the airport 2 hours early.  Rightly so!
• I work out very early in the AM and I am always amazed there are still players at the tables and slots.  Are they starting early or ending late?
• Smoking is still popular???????  What is the deal? It is one of the great truths.  Smoking will kill you earlier than planned.
• More is always better.  The buffets have enough food to feed any 3^rd world country and the muffins at the coffee place in the hotel were as big as footballs.

Just a couple of observations.

Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

IN OUR WORLD

Coming to you live from tropical Minneapolis where the temps are a balmy -3!  I am looking forward to introducing my Repeatable Successful Acts platform to a new audience!

This week was a blur of creative work and meetings.

• I finished the design and production of 7 new programs that debut (believe it or not) all at one meeting next week in Las Vegas.  I love the process from idea to production to presentation.
• I had a series of local client meetings around everything from existing strategies to brand new ideas.  I love that organizations are now pushing new ideas to the forefront in efforts to create differentiation.
• Last Friday night I held a Creative Ventures roundtable dinner party for some of my close Dallas clients and friends to give me an honest assessment of what they think of my business plan and the direction Creative Ventures is headed in.  It was a fantastic evening of open discussion filled with ideas.  A lot to digest and I will need to take some REAL and HONEST time to find what does and doesn’t fit.

I’m not sure if I am actually a film critic, but I sent out the 320^th movie list to people who have requested it.  Love the idea of fun!

Next week is INSANE for me as I have 7 new programs debuting, including a cutting edge look at TRUE impactful trends moving success in 2010.

THE ANNUAL TOP 10 AND BOTTOM 5 MOVIES OF 2009 LIST IS READY TO ROLL.  SEND ME A NOTE AND I WILL GET YOU A COPY

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

I recently sat through a meeting where an organization was discussing a series of ideas that were being considered for application.  I was there to add to the strategic impact of each.

As usual, I was amazed at the level of complexity involved.  One idea involved a 17 page survey.  17 PAGES!  Another involved three core ideas (loved it), expect each core idea involved as many as 20 steps to make it happen.  I called that “the complexity disguise” where something on the surface looks simple but in reality is very complex.

The discipline that leads to simplicity is called; thoughtful reduction and it IS a discipline that requires a focused roughed determination.

To help my client continue their journey in learning the art of TRUE simplification I suggested we leave the warm confines of the conference room and go for a little walkabout of their corporate offices and campus.  Impact begins at the beginning.  Here are few ideas around the first step in a true impact strategy:

• The Client:  Take a critical eye to the actual perspective of the client first.  Do a walkabout and see things like a client sees things.  What does your greeting area look like?  I want you to see everything, because the client IS.  Does your first point of contact send the message you want to EVERYONE that comes into contact with it?  Attack an improvement plan from point of contact.
• The Team:  What does your workspace say to those who produce your work?  Your team is the only way you impact your customer.  The walkabout shifts the perspective from the buying client to the internal client.
• DO SOMETHING NOW:  Making a change to the point of contact makes an IMMEDIATE impact to everyone.  Keep the action simple, something you can do right now.  Make sure that action connects to the simple strategy of impact.

The walkabout yielded three immediate impact steps that were completed within 24 hours.  These impact ideas were simple.  They sent a powerful message and with the right accountability plan, they will gain a life of motion and impact!

Need a little help with the thoughtful reduction discipline?  Give me a shout.

ENTERTAINMENT

MOVIES: I gave The Book of Eli about a 6 on the 10 point scale.  This week I can’t wait to see The Edge of Darkness.

NetFlix Fans:  Whiteout: A murder mystery in Antarctica.  Way cool!

TV: The Aussie Open got my full attention though I made time for the new Fox series; The Human Target (which I love).  My regular shows are in full swing and though I may often miss their original air date I catch them thanks to the DVR.  These include House, The Mentalist, Burn Notice and a few others.

BOOKS:  (Re) Organize For Resilience – Gulam:  The key to being ready for change is to find ways to not only knock down the traditional silos, but to make their walls permeable.

MUSIC: Here is a blast from the past.  The great Richie Havens!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah7d-sP7rDQ

WEB SITES: A FANTASTIC site that sends you chapters of a book via internet that allows you read at your own pace.

http://www.dailylit.com/

SOUTH OF NORMAL

Yep, it’s still not weird enough for me!

• Think those Burger King commercials are creepy?  Just wait until they launch their first franchise in Miami the will serve beer.  Their first alcohol restaurant will open in March.
• Most trusted celebrities – Top 3:  James Earl Jones, Tom Hanks and Michael J. Fox.
• The animal rights groups have set their sites on good old Punxsutawney Phil or the weather predicting groundhog.  They want him replaced by a robotic groundhog.

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

IN OUR WORLD

A fortuitous quirk in scheduling gave me a whole week in the office!  Boy, did I need it.  I have 6 completely different custom programs to design and produce for delivery starting next week in the winter wonderland of Minneapolis.

My design and production process is time consuming and takes a ton of focus.

I create a series of storyboards, followed by a master deck of images and content.  I then engage the critical mind, the editor, and thoughtfully reduce the content to core connection points that meet the time frame allocated.  This process is for a “presentation”, but I use similar approaches to the development of a strategic platform or an education course.

Tonight I am hosting a Creative Ventures strategic roundtable where a group of trusted advisors will meet to help me look at new ideas for the future of Creative Ventures.  This is a great process to add to your planning strategies.  It provides a reboot of your thinking and opens the door for new ideas!

THE ANNUAL TOP 10 AND BOTTOM 5 MOVIES OF 2009 LIST IS READY TO ROLL.  SEND ME A NOTE AND I WILL GET YOU A COPY

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

There certainly has been a huge emphasis on change as a core element of strategic planning and process design.  I am honored to be working on a wide variety of “change initiatives” while also studying the trends that will be “real and true” players in 2010.

With the talk show wars currently being waged, I thought I would use TV as a good example of the chaotic environment we all find ourselves in.

Recently Fox decided to draw a huge line in the television sand in its dealings with Time Warner Cable.  This stance may well be painting a very clear future of our boob tube future.

For 60 years network TV has broadcast news, sports and entertainment for free, making money on advertising (those damn pesky commercials).  This model is the foundation of the big 4, NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox.

But, as change is consuming our entertainment choices, the traditional model may well be on the way out.  The choices available have fractured audiences siphoning traditional ad revenue that with a recession driven economy has potentially doomed free TV.

It’s pretty simple.  Cable, and satellite TV have two avenues of revenue, traditional advertising and user fee’s.  This is a HUGE factor in the profitability for the network.  Not rocket science right?

These user fees vary from about $.26 to as much as $4.00 for a channel like ESPN.  To give you a feel, ESPN saw revenues grow from $1.4 billion to $6.3 billion in less than 10 years!

Fox illustrates this trend perfectly.  Their standard broadcast operations dropped 54% in operating revenue but the cable side of Fox, Fox News for example grew operating revenue by 41%.

With advertisers dropping their ad sales to network TV while they search for the best bang for their buck, the traditional networks are left with a real problem.

This is a great example of the impact of change and how its ripple effects are felt through a wider and wider section of business.

Think simple but flexible planning and you will be prepared for both the potential benefits and random craziness that is bound to happen.

ENTERTAINMENT

MOVIES: :  There are lots of choices out there this week, The Lonely Bones,  Youth in Revolt, Daybreakers, but none of them will get me into the theater this weekend.  The Lonely Bones got a good review from my oldest son (the product of a movie family and thus has an experts eye for cinema.

NetFlix Fans:  Moon: A one man show with Sam Rockwell (whom I love) about an isolated worker on the moon.  A wonderful psychological sci-fi thriller.

TV: Despite the looming temptation of only watching the Australian Open (my tennis addiction knows no boundaries) I did manage to watch the new Fox show The Human Target.  It was fantastic and will be added to my DVR list.  Great characters and fun plot lines.

BOOKS:  10 Laws of Career Reinvention – Mitchell:  This book gives you a vision of your career life and provides tools for you to evaluate your work future.

MUSIC: Bottom line is that I am a singer/songwriter fan and John Gorka is one of my favorites.  This is a great video that gives you TWO high sound and video quality songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b42BEduQbOk

WEB SITES: A reminder of a good site.

http://www.trendhunter.com/

SOUTH OF NORMAL

The disaster in Haiti has brought about an outpouring of international support.  The need for aid is also a mother of invention for the wide variety of fundraisers that are going on:

• World’s tennis #1 Roger Federer did a quickly organized tennis exhibition at the Australian Open that raised over $100,000.  In addition to the ticket revenue many of the players opened their personal wallets and chunked in an average of more than $10,000 each.
• Now, here is a fundraiser that is right there with sports ideas.  Supermodels are playing a ping pong marathon in New York.
• Not to be outdone in out there ideas, the former Long Island Lolita, Amy Fisher will strip for Haiti.  I kid you not!

As odd as they may seem, they speak a world about the true nature of our species.  We are quick to help.

Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

IN OUR WORLD

Coming to you live from San Francisco, The City by the Bay.  This beautiful city remains one of my favorite places to visit in the world.  Though I have an insanely busy schedule, I still enjoy being here.  Walking to meetings with 3 different clients is a treat!

Had a fantastic day of meetings where I had the honor of introducing the Repeatable Successful Acts platform.  Judging from the response this strategy received immediate traction and I hope to have the opportunity to drill down on the idea and get into quick and impactful applications.

To give you at taste of the insanity of my regular schedule, let’s look at Tuesday:

• 3:30 AM start to the day with email response and clean up.
• 6:00 AM to 9:00 workout.
• 9:30 – 10:30 client conference call.
• 11:30 – 1:00 PM  Sprint like a “bat out of hell” to a lunch presentation on the Elegant Simplicity platform.
• 1:00 PM – Apologize to the group for having to sprint out of the meeting upon the completion of my program, BUT, I have a 3:00 flight to San Francisco.
• While waiting to board my flight I run into my British clients who through the sheer coincidence of a small planet, are heading to San Francisco also.  We visit about the impact of the work we started in 09 (they showed me their notebooks and they were using the Elegant Simplicity forms for their meeting planning – a sure sign of my ideas gaining traction).
• Take a 3 ½ hour flight to San Francisco.
• Rush to the hotel and change for a client dinner from 6:00 to 9:00 PM.
• Return to hotel to answer email and watch a House MD re run.

Ta – Da !

The weirdest part is I am totally at home in a day like that!  I actually love it.

Next week will have a quick trip to Houston, but most of it will be building upcoming programs.

Thanks to almost 300 of you who have asked for my movie list.  What started out as a joke almost 10 years ago has now turned into something of value.  I wonder if I can deduct the cost of movie tickets???

THE ANNUAL TOP 10 AND BOTTOM 5 MOVIES OF 2009 LIST IS READY TO ROLL.  SEND ME A NOTE AND I WILL GET YOU A COPY

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

Chris Ryan (my managing agent) recently shared with me a meeting he attended where one of the speakers had just returned from touring Asia and had some observations to share with the audience.  Chris thought they were interesting and he gave me the low down.

The speaker said that while we are watching TV, using social media instead of working and allowing entertainment to replace productivity the world is kick our business butt.  HUH?  WHAT??  Put the brakes on those thoughts.  I said, hmm, interesting perspective, but kind of WRONG.

How about a few facts?

SOCIAL MEDIA

Though we are the leaders in the innovative fields of constant connection, we are not even the key player.  QZone, the Chinese version of Facebook is way bigger and more active.  They already exceed 200 million unique postings per month compared with the 175 million of Facebook and are growing at an almost exponential rate.  This is not a productivity anchor, but instead a staggering business opportunity.

TV

We waste our lives watching TV and the rest of the world is working.  Here are the hours of TV watched per country according to Neilson Ratings;

• United Kingdom  -     28 hours per week per individual
• USA                            28 hours per week per individual
• Italy                              27 hours per week per individual
• Ireland             23 hours per week per individual
• France                        23 hours per week per individual

These numbers are impacted when I watch a House MD marathon.

Thing about this – most of the other worlds TV sucks and their still watching almost as much as we are.

The entertainment industry is approaching $500 billion in business.

PRODUCTIVITY

Using a study by the Boston Globe dated 12/31/08 and the United Nations Study dated 1/31/09 here are some interesting facts;

• The United States is second to only Norway (hey, what else is there to do in Norway).
• We achieve more in an hours work than any country but those damn Norway folks.
• We LEAD the world in overall labor productivity.
• Divide the GNP of a nation by the number of people employed and factor in wealth created per hour worked and compare us to the 27 European Union Nations, Switzerland and Japan and guess what.  Yep we are #2 next to those pesky Norwegians.  Damn, I better start a Norway study.

So, I’m not sure what the speaker was talking about, but if you simply THINK you can tell when something doesn’t sound right.  So, THINK!

ENTERTAINMENT

MOVIES: :  The Book of Eli  - First fun looking movie of the year.  Why is our future always depicted as a bleak, ravished world (except for Star Trek).

NetFlix Fans:  The Brothers Bloom: Quirky but really fun.

TV: Yahoo, new season time.  New House episodes, the Human Target on Fox this Sunday night looks entertaining.  NFL playoffs are raging.  The Simpson’s 20^th anniversary show was hilarious and drew 14.6 million viewers.  American Idol is still going strong.  It was the most non-sport watched show of the season.

Wait a minute, maybe we do watch too much TV.

BOOKS:  I, Sniper – Stephen Hunter brings back Bob Lee Swagger for a new adventure.  If you are not acquainted with Bob Lee start with the first book – Point of Impact.

MUSIC: I have been listening to Greg Trooper lately and really like his sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNRHi_X87V0

WEB SITES: Looking for someplace to find real statistics.  This is a good source.

http://library.csun.edu/Find_Resources/Government_Publications/stathtml.html

SOUTH OF NORMAL

Since I spend a ton of time on the road and most hotels are kind enough to put a newspaper (remember what those things are?) on my door every morning, I get to see lots of colloquial news.  I, like Jay Leno, enjoy the occasional headline, so these are from only ONE WEEK of travel:

• Washington Blood Mobil Offers Beer to Blood Donors – way better than a cookie.
• Surgeon General Benjamin Wants A Healthier USA -  Shocking!
• Turkish Camel Wrestling Outlawed – There goes my reality TV idea.
• Chefs Create Largest Dish of Hummus -  This is news worthy?
• Boy Recovering From Chopstick Removed From Brain -  I was at a Chinese restaurant recently and saw a guy really struggling with is chopsticks so I understand how this happened.
• Country’s Only Hippo Escapes From Zoo – Those hippos are stealthy little critters.

I kid you not, all of these from one week of reading!

Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

IN OUR WORLD

Here we go, a brand new year!  I love the opportunity it presents.

My 2010 started with a quick and very cold trip to New York where I had my second meeting on the idea of a new set of project s that would stretch throughout the year.  It would be a fantastic opportunity and forum to share my ideas around the Repeatable Successful Acts platform.    Then back home to Dallas where it is colder than New York!

My 2010 calendar is getting full and I had the first conflict on a date.

Next week I am off to San Francisco for a new project and I’m staying an extra day to touch base with my other Bay Area clients.

Wow, thanks for all the requests for my movie list.  I think I have sent out almost 200 hundred.  That’s really weird, since this whole idea started as a request I had from a client over 10 years ago.  Now I start getting requests for the list at the first part of November.  Recently at a party someone asked me; “what makes you a critic?”  I said; absolutely NOTHING.  She asked if I was paid for my opinion, that would make you a real critic she commented.  I said no, I wasn’t paid, BUT I get about 300 requests a year.  She said, DAMN, you are a critic!  Ha!

THE ANNUAL TOP 10 AND BOTTOM 5 MOVIES OF 2009 LIST IS READY TO ROLL.  SEND ME A NOTE AND I WILL GET YOU A COPY

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

Have you sat down and thought about this yet?  What can I do to make an impact on my career, on my company?  First things first.  I’m sure you figured out the key filter for this type of thinking;  you make an impact through the things you have a sense of control over.  Thus, market conditions are not a player in your impact decision.  You have NO control of any major bubble burst or market collapse.

There are three key measuring points to consider:

• Experience:  This is a tough one to control.  You only have as much of this as you have.  You may think of it as a time related point.  My son is just starting his career in insurance and he doesn’t have a any real experience.  But by looking for a mentor, someone WITH experience they can accelerate your learning.  Now, not only do you begin your time journey, but you have someone who can ADD their experience to your time.  Organizations that have actual mentoring programs can accelerate the experience curve.
• Knowledge: How much do you know about what you do?  Want a test?  Define what you do in 15 words.  This gives you a feel for how you describe what you know.  Now to gain more knowledge.  Some comes from experience but you can aggressively pursue the acquisition of knowledge.  Start by thinking outside your industry.  True, you need industry specific knowledge and that needs to be an element in your pursuit, but mix in some general business info.  Use Google Alerts or follow people like Guy Kawasaki on Twitter.  Build real time in your schedule to learn.
• Skills: How are your “chops”.  Do you spend time and money on getting better at what you do?  How are your communication skills?  How are your thinking skills?  Your skills are the foundation of your career and most people don’t make it a key mission in their life to just plain get better.  Take advantage of seminars offered by your company.  Go to lectures.  Make it your mission to find opportunities to learn.

Create a three part career plan for 2010 based on these components and you will have a simple, powerful leg up on the competition.

ENTERTAINMENT

MOVIES: :  We are in the typical first of the year movie phase.  Nothing to drive me to the theater.

NetFlix Fans:  The Informant: Quirky and goofy but Matt Damon does a great job.

TV: It’s football time with the NFL playoffs starting (come on Cowboys).  Most of my favorite shows resume next week.  New House on Monday!

BOOKS:  Influencer – By a bunch of authors.  This was a Christmas gift and it is written in a very readable fashion.  It is about how the power to change things.

MUSIC: The Boss doing an acoustic version of Blinded by the Light. Yep, he wrote that in 1973 (I think).  Though Dylan first recorded stream of consciousness songs, this it Bruce’s version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQoftsnFoxY&feature=related

WEB SITES: Interesting stuff, leaning to science.  You have to remember I am a scientist by education.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/

SOUTH OF NORMAL

One of my favorite writers is the clearly weird, odd, creative genius, Neil Gaiman (http://www.neilgaiman.com/ ).  Neil recently wrote a piece on where ideas come from.  In keeping with Neil’s kind of blunt answer he said; I make them up out of my head.”  Now that may seem obvious, but if you have studied the creative process like I have you would find that answer refreshing.

• Nobody really wants a three hour lecture on creativity.  They are simply interested in how creative people do it.  You watch a professional paint a room and you get it.  Read a riveting novel and you are thinking; how in the hell did he or she do this?
• Neil said he does not get ideas from his dreams.  Dream logic makes no sense at all.  Don’t believe me?  Ask someone to describe their dream.
• Ideas aren’t hard, it’s the connecting to a process that’s tough.
• You get a lot of ideas from being bored.  The difference is that some people actually notice the value of the thought.
• We ask questions, open ended questions – What if?  If only. . . .    I wonder what would happen?   If this goes on what next?

I loved Neil’s honesty.

Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

IN OUR WORLD

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It’s time to make sure a few of those 2010 resolutions might actually take hold.  Make your plan is SIMPLE, yet impactful.  Apply the rule of 3.  No more than 3 areas and no more than 3 goals in each.  Even that is a lot, but manageable.  Be specific.  The classic, “loose weight” is a great example.  How much and over what period?  Make it specific.  Looking for categories, how about health, fun and growth.

I hit the ground running in 2010 and am off to NY the first week to look at the application of my strategic platforms within the existing culture of a potential new client.  A very exciting opportunity.

The first newsletter of 2010 is just about to launch and I will have it posted in next week’s blog as well as on my social network sites.

I have a fantastic opportunity with one of my favorite clients to present my ideas on the key trends that will impact business in 2010 to their entire production staff.  I have already started on the storyboards.

No time to rest for any of us.  Hit your 2010 plans hard and smart.  What, you don’t have a strong 2010 plan?  It’s not too late.  Give me a call and let me help you with the thoughtful reduction process to get a simple, powerful and elegant plan ready to go!

THE ANNUAL TOP 10 AND BOTTOM 5 MOVIES OF 2009 LIST IS READY TO ROLL.  SEND ME A NOTE AND I WILL GET YOU A COPY

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

If you were to focus on ONE thing at the outset of a new year, what should it be?  The list could be a long one:

• Customer Centric Focus – Companies don’t go out of business because of the economy, they go out of business because they don’t have customers!
• Employee Skill Training and Growth – after all, what can have a bigger impact on your companies performance than team members with outstanding skills ready to apply them to your growth?
• Sales Strategies – Got to have sales and maybe a focus on tweaking your approach will yield better results.
• Ideas – Without a fresh supply of these your business becomes stale and flounders in yesterdays problems.

I believe one of the key growth areas will be defined by your focus on “connections”.  I know, you think I’m going to launch into a diatribe on social media, which by the way would not be a bad idea, but no, I want you to think about the connections that exist between you and your clients.  Take a few moments and map them out so you can see them.  Most of you will have:

• Client Facing – These are easy to see.  They are all the direct client connections you have.  Your sales force, your receptionist and anyone that comes into personal contact with your clients.
• Electronic:  Your web site, your blog, your newsletter any electronic media you use.

Take a few moments to think about all your connections.  Now that you have them listed, look for opportunities to strengthen them, ideas to increase their impact.

Connections will make things happen!

ENTERTAINMENT

MOVIES:    It’s Complicated:  Looking for a compromise movie for the weekend?  This is funny and well done.

NetFlix Fans:  Extract: Now this movie had a ton of potential, but fell just short of being great, but was still really good.

TV: Not much going on, but look for new seasons for a ton of great shows coming up in January.  Starting Sunday, HBO is again running, BAND OF BROTHERS.  If for some reason you missed this during its first run, don’t miss it this time.  It is a magnificent piece of entertainment!

BOOKS:  The Kill Artist – By Silva.  I am on my third book featuring the hero Gabriel Allon.  The Kill Artist is the first in the series.

MUSIC: A few words of wisdom for the new year from Pink Floyd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DODKTN3O2s

WEB SITES: As a new year dawns I am always driven to listen to Carl Sagan describe our existence in The Pale Blue Dot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJE_Ld-UyCk

SOUTH OF NORMAL

I don’t want to throw Tiger Woods under the bus any more than he has done himself, BUT I thought this was interesting.

Tiger WAS the perfect spokesperson, a deadly competitor, a breaker of racial barriers, a dominate world personality and many companies jumped on board.  Of course they are also jumping off with the turn of events that have not only impacted Tigers future but put a HUGE dent in shareholder value:

• An estimated $12 billion in market value has been lost to companies that had Tiger as a sponsor since his departure from competitive golf.
• The study compared overall market conditions and looked at a four year history, focusing on 9 key sponsors including Accenture, American Express, AT&T, Gillette (Proctor and Gamble) and Gatorade (PepsiCo).
• Taking into account regular market movement it was clear that Tiger was the main impact point.

Ouch!

Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

IN OUR WORLD

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all of you and yours!

I am closing an incredibly successful 2009 and I want to make SURE you all know how grateful I am in finding a place of value for my ideas.

I am having a very non-traditional Christmas for a guy who thrives on the tradition the season brings.  Colin (my youngest) is celebrating Christmas in Spain with friends, Laura is in Southern California with her mom and my family as health reasons prevented them from coming to Dallas.  I’m hanging at the Dallas home celebrating Christmas with my oldest, Dylan and his girlfriend Amanda.  First Christmas in 32 years where we are all kind of separated.  I know we are all where we are supposed to be in the Grace found in our lives.

I have a lot of neat stuff in this blog so I hope you have a little time to check out the links!

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

This is my version of scatter shooting a bunch of stuff I found interesting:

• The 2010 TED line up is posted and it once again shows the incredible journey offered by this dynamic and ever changing event.  I hope you all take advantage of their postings:  http://conferences.ted.com/TED2010/program/guide.php
• Blackberry Blackouts – Man, the crackberry folks must all have been ready to check into rehab as the Blackberry crew had two huge outages in one week.  Hey, the phone still worked.  You remember the phone right?  You dial a series of digits and talk to another person.  Try it; you might remember how you liked it.  You probably guessed it, right?  I’m an iPhone guy.
• Fits and Starts -  The economy is, by many measuring sticks, starting its recover.  The big question is; “a recovery to what?”  Certainly the new economy will only have small resemblances to the old economy.  The income index ticked up the fastest rate in the last 6 months, but the .04% will not get champagne corks to pop.  It’s better than a stick in the economic eye.
• Got That 2010 Plan? – Let me help you simplify your 2010 planning.  Despite a business environment that shifts more than the San Andreas Fault, the core of what you do will always be the best filter for your planning ideas:
  • • Don’t Loose Track of What You Do:  It’s a great planning exercise to keep defining what you do and make sure EVERYONE knows.
    • What Value Do You Bring:  Take some time and run your 2010 plans through the old VALUE screen.  Do your plans provide definable value to your team, your customers and your shareholders?
    • I’m Not The Same:  If you think you can do everything like you have done in the past you will be disappointed.  At the same time run those 2010 plans through the differentiation screen.  Do our plans create a sense of separation and differentiation in a commoditized world?

ENTERTAINMENT

MOVIES:    Invictus:  Clint Eastwood is one of the best film makers in history.  I will see whatever he does.

NetFlix Fans:  500 Days of Summer: A very clever romantic comedy that tugs at your heart and makes you laugh.

TV: Look for some holiday marathons that will break up the family tension of everyone jammed in a small space!  A&E will have Criminal Minds going.  Discovery has Mythbusters running.  SyFy has Stargate.  If you lack cable or satellite coverage – get it for Christmas!

BOOKS:  Return To The Little Kingdom – By Mortiz.  Great book about how Apple changed the world.

MUSIC: So much to share.  I have been learning this song for the past week.  This is the VERY best version of hundreds that have recorded this wonderful painful love song.  Here is Hallelujah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NEU6Xf7lM

WEB SITES: I am always amazed at the people who don’t’ use Pandora to listen to music on their computer while they work.  This is a site that allows you to make your own radio station with your favorite performers.

www.pandora.com

SOUTH OF NORMAL

OK, here are the three so South of Normal ways of thinking that I run into I felt I had to post them:

• Social Media Is Not For Us:  Huh, What?  That is 100 % true if you don’t see the connection to a new and expanding world.  Social media strategy is a MUST and though it appears to be a glob of hard to understand pieces, you don’t have to be an expert to start.  GET GOING and get in the water.
• New Ideas Don’t Need Management:  I wish I could tell you how many organizations are brilliant at seeing the need for a new way to do things while at the same time have no desire to hold anyone accountable for doing these ideas.  They are worried about pushing the system too hard.  Ideas will never show value without constant attention.  If you believe in it enough to launch it, believe in it enough to manage it.  It takes focused ENEGY.
• A Meeting Is A Meeting:  NOPE!  A meeting has three parts; the pre-meeting which enables a meeting to be successful, the meeting itself, stop making them boring and mindless, the post-meeting, what do you do to reconnect to the MEANING of the meeting.  Design and manage meetings to create impact or don’t have them!

Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

IN OUR WORLD

We made it back from our big adventure in the UK and London will never be the same!  A few observations:

• London does Christmas like no other city.  It was beautifully decorated with a great combination of old Victorian and modern features.  Magical!
• London makes Manhattan look like Boise!  I have never seen more people or been in a busier city – EVER.
• Favorite sites – Lloyds of London building and trading floor (still doing business like they did 300 years ago when merchant ships were their most important insured), the hallowed grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (Wimbledon), Abbey Road, 221 B Baker St (look it up), Tower of London, The British Museum, Leicester Square and the Globe Theater (look it up).
• Not the city to visit for food, though if you hunted around you found some treasures.
• It gets dark at 3:30 PM, I mean DARK.  By 6 PM I thought it was 10 PM.
• The TUBE is the best transportation system I have ever seen.  Period.
• The famous Black Cabs (their taxi cabs) are famous for a reason.  EVERY driver takes an exhaustive test about the streets of London and they know exactly where they are going every time.  The cabs are HUGE and immaculate. 
• Street vendors selling Belgium Waffles.  This malty, crunchy treats with a slight sugar coating are FANTASTIC.
• My clients were fantastic to work with and I am so JAZZED about the opportunity to move forward in 2010.

I have really cranked out the work the last few days and hope to take it easy next week.

Thank you all for the kind words about my youngest son, Colin, who moved to Seville, Spain this week to begin a job as a cultural liaison to the school system of Seville.  It was sad to see him go, but great to think of the grand adventure that awaits him.

Here is my latest article:  http://www.creativeventures.com/Magazine/NoBorders.html

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

One of the great things about what I do is the variety of businesses I get to work with.  From computers to shoes, from food and beverage to insurance, from pharmaceuticals to hospitality, I have to be on my toes and aware of the true and real trends that will be impacting their business.  I have to be able to form strategies around their ideas and keep them consistent with my platform design.  I thought I would pick one and share a few things.

Here are some of the future trends that will be impacting the Food and Beverage industry:

• Consumer Priorities:  The impact of the recession on restaurants and hospitality will have waves of impact for the next 5 years or more.  Customers are concerned about issues that were not even “on the table” two years ago:
  • Personal, emotional and ethical issues are front and center.
  • Intimacy and friendship are important.
  • Food that connects to emotion.
  • Artisan and hand-made foods will be big.
  • Close to home, neighborhood, local will be a big market driver.
  • Comfort and safety will play a role in where people choose to dine.

• Upscale the Downscale:  Forget about the $100 dollar bottles of wine or the steakhouses that are down 25% – 30%, diners are looking for traditional burgers and hot dogs which are up in sales.  The opportunity lies in the upscale of these traditional favorites.  Gourmet burgers and hot dogs served with goat cheese and guacamole or fries with truffle oil are going to be big.
• Loosing Control:  With the real time aspect of social networking dominating what people hear and then believe, your customers are in control.  This is not just a food and beverage trend, but an every business trend.  Look for ways to get close to your customers, immediately.  Get a Twitter site.  Broadcast to your readers – ½ well drinks from 7 PM – 8 PM.  Table for 2 at 8:00 PM just opened.
• Check out these new “hot” food items:  Lamb Riblets, Vietnamese sandwiches, artisan hot dogs, fast food delivery (it’s coming and will have a huge market impact), global comfort food and made to order (flash freeze) ice cream.

Now, multiple that by over a dozen industries and you can tell why I start my work day at 3:00 AM!

ENTERTAINMENT

MOVIES:    Avatar:  Don’t like sci-fi flicks?  Who cares!  Go see this magnificent film and let your imagination go free!

NetFlix Fans:  Julie and Julia:   Don’t fall off your chair, yes I am recommending what might and I say MIGHT be termed a chick-flick.  I loved this movie and thought it was another showcase for Streep.

TV:    Oh, I forgot to mention one thing I hated about London.  The TV in our hotel room had 5, yep count them, 5 channels all BBC.  The highlight of the TV day was when a re-run of Frazier hit the screen.  Though we didn’t spend a lot of time in the room, we Americans expect that ESPN might sneak across the pond.  So, Laura and I have a lot of catching up to do.  The DVR is stuffed with House, Monk, The Mentalist and a few others.

BOOKS:  Maestro – By Nierenberg.  Listed as one of the best business books of the year it deals with listening as a key component of leadership.

MUSIC:   I know that John Mayer catches a lot of grief, but I am a huge fan.  This is a spectacular cover of Tom Petty’s Free Fallin -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Ov0cDPZy8         

WEB SITES:   If you want to stay on top of things in an ever changing world, bookmark this site.

 www.trendhunter.com     

SOUTH OF NORMAL

Three new business ideas that show it pays to think South of Normal:

1. Philly Kitchen Share is a company that allows hourly rental of commercial kitchens.  So if you are a starting catering company, you now have access to a professional kitchen.  Planning to cook for a large party and your home or apartment kitchen won’t cut it?  Now you have an option:  www.phillykitchenshare.com
2. Looking for help with a logo, brochure design or product name?  Try crowd sourcing the project through www.freshbrand.com .  This site will post your project and the amount you have budgeted and send it to the design world.  You will get a bunch of ideas and pay a minimum of $50 for the idea you select.
3. www.memolio.com is a BETA site that will create compact photo albums from your digital pictures.  Upload up to 24 photos, edit and choose album design and presto, you receive a photo album you can carry in your pocket!

This is my first shot at adding a photo in the new WordPress blog software, so I hope it works!

This has to be the best house Christmas decoration EVER!  The police made him take it down L

Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

IN OUR WORLD

Finishing up my first week in London.  Not only did I get some typically tourist stuff done, but started a new client relationship with strategy meetings.  Both my client and I had the same trepidations about a culture clash.  The mitigating aspect is that they do most of their business in the States so they are looking for the type of ideas I was bringing.  The key is the right application.  I hope to have the opportunity to work with their management team on building the traction that will give the type of impact they have the potential of achieving. 

We are getting a break in the weather and after a few meetings I will get some time with Laura to take in a few more sights.  We are headed to the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon, Westminster, London Tower and a few more on Laura’s master list.  It seems we have walked across the country as everything is a combination of a tube ride and a long walk.  I love the combination.

London is wonderful during the Holidays.  Every night after dinner (food is not the #1 attraction in London, but we have found some favorites) Laura and I walk through the hustle and bustle of Piccadilly Circus (the Times Square of London) and the other hot spots.  They are jammed with holiday activities and the strange combination of a modern city with its Victorian aspects creates kind of a magical feel.  The famous “Black Cab’s” are fantastic.  Clean as a whistle and the cabbies are highly trained to know every street in London.  They also give you a great social/travel dialog with the ride.  It takes about 1 minute to catch one.  The Tube is the best mass transit system I have ever seen and a way cool iPhone app that shows you exactly where you go and where you catch a train.

Back in the States on Sunday.

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

As you know I am in the idea business and I always focus on the key aspect of value – their application.  Ideas are looking for traction, that elusive aspect that makes an idea take off.  Here are a few traction ideas:

• Do it.  The old Nike motto is as applicable in idea application as it is in running.  What holds back a new idea is the fear of DOING IT.  You need to get started.  Leadership is about movement.  The application of doing new ideas is the actual movement of their application.
• Accountability:  I am amazed at the number of times organizations lack the hardnosed attribute of holding people accountable for their actions.  If, a new strategy is put into play and no one is pushing the idea, checking on it, making sure it is in play, its ability to create impact is very limited. 
• Measure:  Find the scale that makes sense for the idea.  How will you determine impact?  Have you provided the right space between the cause (the new idea) and effect (the impact)?  Ideas are measurable; they simply need the right methodology.

Those are the 3 key steps in the APPLICATION of ideas, in the creation of traction and most importantly, in the potential of IMPACT!

ENTERTAINMENT

MOVIES:    The Fantastic Mr. Fox will make my Top 10 list for sure.  It is a wonderful film.

NetFlix Fans:  Amelie:   During a dinner in London, Laura and I started listing our favorite ‘small” movies.  You know those small, little treats that kind of snuck up on you.  Amelie was a ‘drag to” (your significant other drags you kicking and screaming) but I fell in love with this little gem.

TV:    I swear to you, my only BIG complaint is TV in London.  I am working here and so I don’t stay out drinking pints with my new mates.  I like to watch a little telly before I snooze off.  Our hotel gives you four channels.  YEP, four channels.  All are BBC stuff.  The highlight of their TV is Frasier re-runs.  Man, I miss my sports and my House.

BOOKS:  A Study in Scarlett – By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  I got to visit 221 B Baker St. the mythological address of the most famous detective of all time.  Great book to introduce you to the master of “inductive and deductive’ thinking.

MUSIC:   David Gray started out as a Tube musician in the underground in London.   I have heard some great folks playing during my trips on the subway and I thought I would give you a taste of one that made it big.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPCMsl9tOIU         

WEB SITES:   One you will want to bookmark.

 www.visitlondon.com     

SOUTH OF NORMAL

In the US, the newspaper business is dying, but here in the UK there are so many daily newspapers I can’t even keep up.  Some are “rags” that read like the National Enquirer, while others are conservative regular style papers.  Here are a couple of British South of Normal Stories:

• Famous British actors leaving the great schools of London to attend university in the US.  Emma Watson of Harry Potter film fame is headed to Brown University in Rhode Island. 
• The paper reports on a French book – La Face Cachee des Fesses (The Hidden Side of the Bottom), that is the result of a “highbrow” study on the impact of the derriere on society.
• The papers are filled with Tiger Woods stories, so much that I would not be surprised to hear he has met with aliens.  It is unbelievable the speed with which Tiger has fallen in the social/ sports circles.  But as the news quickly reminds us, the price of celebrity is an up and down ride.

Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

IN OUR WORLD

Coming to you from across the pond in Jolly Olde England.  Laura and I are in London for 10 days.  A little tourist stuff and some work for me with a brand new client.  I am jazzed about the opportunity to work with my new friends in England and hope my very American ideas translate well.  I’m about as American as you can get being an ex-surfer who now lives in Texas!

The weather is cold but clear (pretty sure we are lucky). 

On our arrival date after about 24 straight hours awake, we still managed to drag ourselves to the British Museum.  It’s about a 5 minute walk from our hotel.  There, we saw the ORIGINAL Rosetta Stone!  We also got a history lesson on it.  It inspired me to outline my next article, on the power of recognizing patterns.

We have a few days before I start to work on Monday and Laura has the whole few days planned out.  I plan to follow along.  The iPhone has an unbelievable app that shows the London Tube (subway) and all you do is enter a starting and ending point and it will figure out your entire journey.  Way cool!

If you want to follow my London adventures, check my Twitter and Facebook postings.

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

Are you looking for some of the legitimate trends that you might see become real players in 2010?  Here are a couple to pay attention to:

• URBANY:  Urban culture IS the culture.  The key here is buyers are becoming more and more sophisticated, using virtually unlimited resources to make buying decisions.  Make sure your bases are covered so a buyer can not only find you, but get to know you.
• LIVING IN REAL TIME:  Everything happens NOW.  If you have a success, make sure everyone knows RIGHT NOW.  If you have a failure, yep, MAKE SURE EVERYONE KNOWS RIGHT NOW.  By the way, be sure to add how you recovered!
• TRACKING AND ALERTING:  The infolust that has grabbed consumers will launch countless new services to help manage all that stuff as well as connect searchers to what they are looking for.  So what does this mean?  How are you found and what do you look like will continue to gain momentum.
• PROFILE MYNING:  Close to Tracking and Alerting is the knowledge that hundreds of millions of consumers are now nurturing some sort of on line profile and 2010 will be a great year to leverage the strategy around this.

There you go, just a couple of ideas to get your head going.

ENTERTAINMENT

MOVIES:    Up In The Air:  Still not in line for this one, but with both Dylan and Colin on my side, how can Laura say no???

NetFlix Fans:  A Strategy Idea:   During a recent client dinner I threw out the discussion topic of – “What movies do you stop on, every time, you are surfing around, no matter where the movie is in its running time?”  Try this and keep a pen with you to jot down some of the movies that stop your friends  dead in their surfing tracks. Reminded me to watch The Boondock Saints again before the sequel comes out.  This is a FANTASTIC and weird little movie.

TV:    OK, stop whatever you are doing and go the guide on your humungous HD TV and search for HBO – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert.  This is four hours of non stop music.  Everyone from CSN to Metallica, from Stevie Wonder to U2, from Paul Simon to The Boss, from Jeff Beck to BB King.  I was mesmerized.

BOOKS:  You Are What You Choose – By De Marchi & Hamilton.  Backed by 30,000 test results the authors show six traits that impact the way we make decisions; Time, Risk, Altruism, Information, Me and Stickiness.  Good stuff, but sometimes a little too academic.

MUSIC:   I usually post a song here, but I was so taken with the HBO Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert that I wanted to give you just a glimpse incase you missed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPMwILVUWyA          

WEB SITES:   One you will want to bookmark.

 www.chronologicalsnobbery.com     

SOUTH OF NORMAL

Yes, it’s true, Las Vegas is the home of South of Normal, but even by their terms the City Place project is weird.  Huge is scale and in the works for years it is getting ready to finally open.  Located right on the Strip it is a sight to behold, but really, in these times opening something like this seems insane:

• Adding 5,900 rooms to a city that already had 141,000 rooms already?
• It covers 67 acres and has a cost of +/- $8.5 billion (give or take a couple of hundred million).
• Room prices in Las Vegas have dropped 25% since last year and visitors are down from an all time high in 07 of 39.2 million to 37.5 million in 08.
• State unemployment is 13.3% (ouch).
• To top it all off there are three more mega hotel projects on hold that will add another 9,390 rooms to the Vegas inventory.

I wish I could figure out what they know that I don’t, but here is one thing I do know.  Las Vegas is one of the BEST bargains in the world!

Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.