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

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

Seattle was great!  The city should hire me because every time I’m there the weather is beautiful.  Cool and crisp with a fresh blanket of snow on the Cascades – SPECTACULAR!  If it wasn’t such a damn long flight I would  love coming out here.  Ah, forget about the flight, I love coming out here!

 

Many of you know that I love unique breakfast eateries and Seattle has one of the top 3 in the country – The Portage Bay Café!  I always make a stop for their vanilla yogurt pancakes and a trip to their berry bar (imagine a bunch of silver bowls filled with every fresh berry known in the universe).  WOW!

 

I introduced our latest sales strategy base on the research I did from top producers in three separate industries.  By applying the Repeatable Successful Acts in a three part sales model, you can revolutionize and simplify your current sales systems.  It was a huge success with a financial services client and is gaining momentum with almost all of our big clients.  Simple, Powerful and Elegant!

 

Next week it is off to Orlando and DisneyWorld to launch three separate strategic platforms – Transformation, Curriculum design and training and our latest look at leadership skills and principles.  Oh, I am throwing in some time with Laura and Mickey at the Magic Kingdom!

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

Everywhere you turn you hear and see more and more about the power of utilizing rich media and web based opportunities to contact and extend your customer relationships.  We have an entire division dedicated to rich media strategies.  From video to HTML, from podcasting to blogs, each have a specific place in just about every ones marketing and sales strategies.  Don’t believe me?  Think that its just to complicated or expensive?  Here are a few key bits of information to help you make the move to rich media.

 

• Recent consumer studies show that people looking for product info now gravitate to the companies web sites as the most credible source of product information.
• Clothier JJ Crew has made a huge commitment to their internet penetration and recently set up a “personal shopper” program that you can sign up for on line allowing you to meet with a JJ Crew team member and access the store before or after regular store hours.  The impact – 14% increase in revenue from 06 – 07.
• GM is moving half its $3 billion advertising budget to on line and one on one marketing within the next 3 years!
• We just finished two custom videos for a 10^th of what a print piece would have cost and gave the client a living breathing product deliverable in a variety of strategic channels.

 

Get on the bus or the opportunity will pass you by!

 

 

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:     The Forbidden Kingdom is a fun martial arts adventure movie.

 

NetFlix Fans:  The Princess Bride –   A recent dinner discussion centered around naming “perfect movies”.    You might ask; what criteria makes for a perfect movie?  Well, it is the most subjective of grades, but we have found when you name one that generates a table response of “Oh Yeah”, it’s a winner.  Here is one that made  the list.  If you have not seen it, DO SO NOW!

 

TV:    Finally, on it’s new night, Monday’s, Dr. Gregory House makes his triumphant return to Fox TV on House MD.  Also, was home in time to catch Boston Legal last week and it made we cry for 30 minutes.  Not to be outdone on my tear ducts, was the final episode in the epic mini-series on HBO, John Adams.  This is a must see for those who missed it. 

 

BOOKS:  Protect and Defend, is the latest Mitch Rapp adventure written by Vince Flynn.  Rapp is one of my favorite reoccurring characters and the long flight to Seattle gave me some quality time with his latest butt kicking story.

 

MUSIC:  I am a big Colin Hay fan and just found this video of one of my favorite songs – Waiting For My Real Life To Begin.  Fantastic lyrics.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HZjC_7CeW4

 

WEB SITES:   Looking for song lyrics.  Here is a great site.

 

http://www.lyricsdepot.com/

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

Here are a couple of South of Normal business ideas that I really like!

·        www.vibrantbrains.com out of San Francisco is setting up health club styled facilities to keep your brain as fit as your body.  They use a variety of computer software programs that challenge your mental power.  They even have brain trainers!

·        www.ikea.com has added an interesting twist to their Stockholm store.  They now have a sleep/nap center, where after an exhausting couple hours of shopping you can rent a bed, dawn a set of headphones and a sleeping mask and catch a short nap.  This prepares you for the rigors of afternoon shopping!

 

“Aint no use to sit and wonder why babe,

It don’t matter any how.

Don’t think twice it’s alright.”

Bob Dylan

 

 

Drop me a note with your comments at creativeventures@nova1.com.

 

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

WOW, thanks for the ton of email about my experience at the Masters.  I had no idea so many of you loved and played golf.  Also thanks for all the Masters facts you sent.  Sorry Tiger couldn’t pull off another win.

 

I spent time in New York this week working on a continued sales and management strategy.  It was a great trip.  Beautiful spring weather (though the sun does not hit the streets thanks to the skyscrapers), flights that actually flew and one of them even left ON TIME!  A great client with a true desire to push towards his team’s potential.  With that one, simple aspect of leadership, you can change the way you do business!

 

Monday will have me flying to the Pacific Northwest as the green gem of Seattle beckons.  Not only is it a great project and another chance to introduce our latest sales model based on the Repeatable Successful Acts research, but I will get to hit the Portage Bay Café for one of the best breakfasts in the world!

 

We finished a huge video project and the end result so far exceeded even my expectations that it has brought tears to everyone’s eyes who have watched it.  Rich Media drives markets and allows you to assume a leadership position unlike any other form of marketing.  And it’s dirt cheap!

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

Time for a little “scatter shooting”:

 

• In 1899, Charles Duell, the then Commissioner of the US Patent Office, recommended to Congress to close the Office down to save money; “Everything that can be invented – has already been invented.”  Lucky we didn’t take that advice!  In Geneva, some 750 inventors from 45 countries will be looking for a market for their ideas.  An amazing 43% of participants will have their invention picked up by distributors and investors.  Ideas never die.  Just think about music.  There are only 7 notes upon which music is based yet everyday new songs are created.

 

• We have always been a visual company.  We use graphics to depict ideas.  Our programs have a minimum amount of text; instead we communicate our ideas with startling images.  It seems to be a popular idea.  More and more companies are using pictures to help communicate complex issues and ideas.  The great UPS commercials with the guy sketching are exactly how we “storyboard” our ideas.    Facebook is based on a “social graph” – a visual model of how people interact.  More visual and less language strategies help communicates complex issues.  Learning to draw is simple.  Take a look at the “BOOKS” section of this blog for some help.

 

 

 

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:     88 Minutes with Al Pacino might get my money this weekend.

 

NetFlix Fans:  Shattered –   A spectacular mystery and one that made my wife famous by taking a challenge to figure it out before the end.  She did it in amazing fashion.

 

TV:    Not watching anything. 

 

BOOKS:  Rapid Viz  by Hanks and Bellisoton and Design Primer by Porter and Goodman  are fantastic books to teach you how to do quick sketch drawing.  Also try The Creative License by Gregory.

 

MUSIC:  I was visiting with a friend about this great Billy Joel song.  Hope you like it!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RQhphPp43Q

 

 

WEB SITES:   Great gadget stuff.

 

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

Yep, that big sucking sound you heard on the 15^th was everyone sending in their US dues to the IRS.  Here are few mind numbing facts:

 

• In 2006, $2.5 trillion tax dollars were collected.
• Over 140,000,000 returns were filed.
• The average refund in 2007 was $2,225.
• Surprisingly, only 10% of us wait until the last day to file our returns or extensions.
• The US has the 4^th lowest tax burden of the 30 OECD countries.  So stop bitching.
• The government estimates it fails to collect about $345,000,000,000 each year.

 

“It is the familiar that usually eludes us.

What is before our nose is what we see last.”

William Barrett

 

 

Drop me a note with your comments at creativeventures@nova1.com.

 

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

Oh, I’m sure you read or heard about American Airlines cancelling 400 flights due to faulty wiring in the wheels of their Super 80 aircrafts, which by the way, makes up over half their fleet.  I’m sure you were thinking, “hey, I wonder if Steve is out in the great big world and stranded somewhere due to this mishap of maintenance?  As fate would have it, YES I WAS!

 

Trying to get home from Atlanta, I found myself a wayward refugee just trying to get home.  Thanks to a wonderful AA agent, my friend and I made our way to Gulfport Mississippi, then back to Dallas on a couple of tiny puddle jumping jets. 

 

Ah, the excitement of travel!

 

Next week, off to the Big Apple where I get to share some strategy with a client.

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

I just returned from the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta GA and thought I would share some observations from a keen eye for commitment and service:

 

THINGS I LEARNED AT THE MASTERS

 

• “Please remove all labels from water bottles before entering the grounds of Augusta National Country Club” – yep, no logo’s of any kind on the grounds.  Security guards made sure of that at the entry points. 
• The Masters has to be the greatest confluence of middle aged white guys on the planet.
• Paradise does exist and God tucked it into a tiny corner in the small town of Augusta GA.  The Masters golf course may be the most beautiful place I have ever seen.  Every piece of the place is perfect and I mean PERFECT.  No weeds, no trash, every flowering tree or shrub in full bloom, every employee in uniform.  It was everything you see on TV and more.
• Bring a pile of money for stuff at the Masters Pro Shop.  You will probably only be here ONCE, so buy something for everyone you know that is a golf fan and they can share in your experience.  By the way, it takes a bif pile of money to get out of that pro shop with stuff.  The best part, right after you have broken your personal bank , they put it in a box for you and ship it to your home!
• Everyone looks like a golfer.  To find any pro at Augusta you need to look for the all white clad caddies.  Find a caddie on the course and you find a pro golfer.
• SKIP IT!  There is a weird tradition on the 16^th hole during the practice round.  After a pro has hit his drive to the par 3 green, thousands of people start chanting, “SKIP IT”.  The golfer then walks up to the edge of the lake that protects the green and tries to skip a golf ball over the surface of the lake and on to the green.  A thunderous round of applause ensues if they get the ball on the green.
• Lunch is cheap.  Sandwiches are between $1.50 and $2.50, soft drinks (no label, they are served in green Masters cups and say only, “cola, lemon lime, sports drink, regular beer or light beer), are $1.00, chips are $.50.  You can have lunch for $3.00!  I kid you not.  By the way, packaged product is in a green bag, so if a piece of liter gets past one of the hundreds of liter crew people, it blends into the green of the course.
• Since the men out number the women in attendance by 50-1, this becomes the only sporting event where there is never a line at the women’s room.  The science of line management is in its full glory in the men’s room where an attendant directs everyone and there is someone handing you a towel to dry your hands.  I kid you not!
• No cell phones, iPhones, Blackberry’s or any communication tool allowed on the grounds.  You have to check them or leave them in your car.  Imagine the number of nervous breakdowns happening to people addicted to being in constant contact with the world!

 

So, what is the real lesson from Augusta National?  If you want perfection you can have it.  All it takes is a level of intense focus and never accepting anything less.  If you see something wrong it is corrected, immediately.  If you have a team member not up to the task, they are removed.  It has no beginning or end, it is an Alpha and Omega strategy.  Hey, this is the 72^nd Masters and they have had history to help, but in the end it is all about focus!

 

 

 

 

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:     Just saw Vantage Point with Dennis Quaid and thought it was really entertaining!

 

NetFlix Fans:  The Black Dahlia –   A movie based on the famous unsolved murder of the late 1950’s.

 

TV:    The Masters will dominate my weekend viewing, but House MD has a new episode on Monday night.

 

BOOKS:  The Goal  by Goldratt  is a blast from the past and one of the classic business reads.  I believe this is a must read book for everyone interested in a story woven around business.

 

MUSIC:  Most of you know that I am a HUGE Dylan fan and every once in a while I like to throw in a Dylan tune.  This is one of my favorite story songs he does – Tangled Up In Blue.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S69UaDY4tk8

 

WEB SITES:   Science is changing the world.  Find out how at this blog.

 

http://scienceblogs.com/

 

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

Time to profile a few new companies:

 

• www.bellendoejezo.com is a Dutch company that is training its teenagers to become teachers.  Teaching what you might ask?  How to use a cell phone to older citizens.  The ability to text message is becoming essential to staying in touch with the youth of today and now they can teach everyone how to do it.
• www.smartypig.com  is a US company teaching people how to save money for certain events.  It seems that people are more willing to save if there is a specific goal attached to the savings account.  Smartypig will set up a special account, tell you how much you need to save to reach the goal and deduct that amount from a designated account.  It is backed by West Bank, a 115 year old FDIC insured institution with $1.3 billion in assets.
• www.yourgiftlabel.com  will allow you to print custom labels for your gifts of expensive liquor.  You can add your name or a greeting and the best part, it’s FREE.

 

 

“Great minds have purposes.

Others have wishes.”

Washington Irving

 

 

Drop me a note with your comments at creativeventures@nova1.com.

 

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

I returned home on Monday to a real NIGHTMARE!  Over this past weekend Yahoo made some security protocol corrects that they knew would adversely affect about 30% of their clients.  Guess what, yep, that was me.  Yahoo is intimately connected with my ISP who coincidently provides the basis for my ability to send and receive email. 

 

I leave on Friday with everything in working order and arrive back on Monday with my email crashed!

 

I have spent three days trying to get the past back.  I simply want things to be like they were.  I have consulted with the ISP, experts and friends alike.  I have sat patiently on the phone attempting to become a programmer.  I have changed every email setting and changed them back again.  The damn change affected both my PC and my Mac.

 

So, three lost days of productivity, three days of frustration and three days of trying to return to quill and paper!

 

My progress is that I have about 60% of the issues solved and I’m just plain out of time. I am leaving for Chicago this morning, then home for a quick business dinner, and then out on Sunday for four more days.

 

So, if you have not heard from me and are expecting an email, I’m sorry, BUT, I’m working on it!

 

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

Ever wonder how we determine what is and what is not true, especially in the age of instant information?  Farah Manjoo just wrote a wonderful book called TRUE ENOUGH and it explores the cultural vulnerability to rumor. 

 

Facts are getting pressure from just about everywhere and it causes us to add a filter that separates truth from fiction.  Our digital technology has fostered speed and social networks that when combined set rumors on wild and frantic journeys with no opposition from the truth.

 

Manjoo says that repeating a claim, even to refute it INCREASES its apparent truthfulness.  To determine the reality of a statement we look to society’s collective assessment of it.  When it is hard to measure, the brain relies on our familiarity with it.  The more familiar the more true.  This invites HUGE opportunity for error.  Repetition easily tricks us. 

 

It is basically an arms race between truth and fiction.  So, what do you do?  How to you build a real and true foundation of knowledge?

 

• THINK!  This is a skill set. Apply your filters and start with; “if it doesn’t sound right, it should be questioned”.  Remember, you and only you get to think for yourself!
• DON’T CONFUSE INFORMATION WITH KNOWLEDGE:  Anyone can access information and it the day of technological domination; anyone can get it with the virtual speed of thought.  But information is not knowledge.  Knowledge is the effective application of information.  Think before you apply!
• FIND TRUSTED SOURCES:  I read constantly and stumble upon all kinds of weird things.   Over the years I have developed trusted sources where I have high confidence that the information has a valid basis to start my thinking process.

 

By the way, I don’t’ think they found Big Foot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:     Sorry gang, but no time for movies so I have taken the “look, see” for the next big release off my radar.

 

NetFlix Fans:  Fired! – A great documentary on people’s experience of being fired from a job.  Some of my favorite stories;

 

• Fired after 4 hours as a coat check girl; “I was experienced.  I had worn coats and understood the function of a hanger.  In the winter I actually hung my coat up daily.”
• I was fired from an ice cream shop because I actually thought I could effectively scoop ice cream while high on acid.

 

TV:    Not much here except sports, so get ready for baseball, The Final Four, the Masters and the French Open.

 

BOOKS:  The Three Books in the Camel Club Series  by David Baldacci is a fantastic series of fiction, intense in character study.  Start with The Camel Club.

 

MUSIC:  I’ve always liked the band My Morning Jacket and here is a great example of their music.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjLFG0i2_AE

 

WEB SITES:   Great new blog from the NY Times on the creative process.

 

http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/?ex=1222574400&en=d07a298be1751724&ei=5087?excamp=NYT-E-I-NYT-E-AT-0402-L10&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_id=%20NYT-E-I-NYT-E-AT-0402-L10

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

Simply enjoy reading this sample of South of Normal journalism:

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-hm-erskine3apr03,1,4783254.column

 

“We have more possibilities available in each moment than

We realize.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

 

 

Drop me a note with your comments at creativeventures@nova1.com.

 

 

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