Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .
IN OUR WORLD
You know those weeks where you look up at the calendar and it’s already Friday? Well, that was this week. Heck, I looked at the calendar and realized half the year was already gone. Projects that were scheduled to launch in the third quarter seemed so far away and now their HERE!
July and August have me on the road every week with little time to repack.
I am WAY JAZZED to launch my new public relations and media plan with Darren Horwitz at the helm. I’m looking forward to see the return of a well designed six month battle plan.
All businesses know the importance of “the pipeline”, an avenue filled with potential projects that you strategically position to generate new business. It is a foundation for success in small businesses. As I get ready for July I am glad to have a really full pipeline for new projects with new clients. It gives you something to focus and work on. Chris Ryan remains a great help in both generating and managing a lot of the pipelines potential.
This past week gave me:
- A brand new company holding their annual training day! I had the honor of closing the meeting and received great feedback adding a bunch of people to my email list!
- Received the evaluation report from a huge meeting in Minneapolis – 94% rated my program excellent, making me the highest rated speaker of the two day program.
- Moved forward on a HUGE curriculum design project that is at the head of the pipeline.
- Had a dozen (yes, a dozen) conference calls and two big time meetings, one on existing projects and another on a brand new project with two LOCAL clients!
Next week off to California!
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AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
One of my conference calls this week was about a client needing help with a redesign of their sales process. This is a mature company that has not really visited their process in a long time and wanted to update the way they do things to take advantage of new technology and a repositioning of their relationship building strategy.
This is a great idea – a meaningful visit to your sales process. In this case, the system of steps used to generate a sale was an amalgamation of years of unplanned organic growth that resulted in success, but has become a system that is virtually unmanageable and seldom follows any sense of order. Now I’m a big fan of the positive impact of randomness, but you do need some type of simple road or the randomness dominates your time.
When we began the process mapping part of the project it became clear that no one could really articulate or even accurately define the process. Defining the current reality of any project is a foundation starting point and is often the most difficult part of any project.
Here are a few suggestions that should help you look at any of your strategic endeavors. This is my ELEGANT SIMPLICITY MODEL.
CURRENT REALITY: All and I mean ALL great planning begins with where you are. A FIRM understanding and agreement defines the starting point.
THE BIG GOAL: In the sales process example, the company wanted to visit their process. That’s wasn’t the big goal. That was the starting point for the core idea. The reality was they knew they needed to make changes, so the BIG goal was to design a sales process that could take advantage of the current conditions and grow to meet the challenges of a shifting market place.
LEVERAGE: Once the first two parts are done you are left with the dilemma of space. Space as defined by distance between the current reality of their sales process and their goal of a sales system that fits and works. You need a way to move the system forward through design and implementation. You need to find the minimum effort that will yield the maximum return in actionable, accountable steps. This is the plan’s road map. Leverage changes the current reality moving the model forward.
That’s it, three steps.
Here is your starting point – in your current reality, what are you doing that COUNTS. I mean really counts for success.
Believe it or not it is that simple, not easy (lack of effort), but simple (a lack of complexity).
ENTERTAINMENT
MOVIES: The Last Airbender: I am a big M. Night. Shyamalan fan. I loved The Sixth Sense and I still get freaked out scared watching Signs. His new one is fantasy adventure based on a video game (I know, sounds weak) but I will still be there.
NetFlix Fans: When You’re Strange: This is another rock documentary about The Doors.
TV: Can’t wait for the Wimbledon final on Sunday morning with the traditional scones and strawberry’s and cream. Burn Notice (Thursday nights on USA) remains an entertaining little spy series and USA still rules the world of independent character driven TV shows.
BOOKS: Delivering Happiness – By Hsieh. Tony is the founder of internet shoe giant, ZAPPOS and this is a great read. Tony’s built a billion dollar empire around a team centric philosophy that then moves the customer to a new level of service. Good stuff!
MUSIC: It’s no secret; I am drawn to the singer songwriter as my favorite form of music. Being a natural storyteller I am amazed at the impact one person can have on your mood, your imagination and your perspective. Ellis Paul remains one of my favorites.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvU4qCkH_iQ
WEB SITES: A really interesting guy who’s web site is all about the art of non-conformity.
SOUTH OF NORMAL
During one of a recent conference I attended I had the opportunity to hear Michael Shermer speak. Michael is the publisher of Skeptic Magazine (http://www.skeptic.com/ ) and a funny, insightful speaker. He played with a number of classic beliefs to show that a little critical thinking will show you where the path of “probable truth” (always hedging your bet) lies.
Michael’s thoughts fly in the face of both tradition and current world views. I love South of Normal thinkers. I don’t have to agree with them, but I love the intellectual challenge they present.
You might enjoy Michaels TED speech:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/michael_shermer_on_believing_strange_things.html
Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com
Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.
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