Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .
IN OUR WORLD
I am at the end of my 6th of 7 weeks of travel, delivering the Repeatable Successful Acts sales platform in 13 of 17 cities. Next week is my final week on of the road in 2010. I have 5 cities in 4 days!
I must admit I have been staggered by the impact the Repeatable Successful Acts sales strategy has had. I have presented the idea to 1000’s of business professionals; I have applied the strategy to 20 existing sales processes making a number of the RSA’s part of a company’s sales system. I have 5 companies ready to use the RSA platform in the first quarter of 2011. This is all within the first year of it debuting. Overall, the two years of research, interviews and expenditures which I worried about and was unsure if they would result in an idea with traction now make up a pretty good hunk of my business.
This week I was in the inter-mountain west presenting and visiting with businesses in Salt Lake City and Denver.
The core ideas that I have lined up for 2011 include a hard look at the emerging impact focused teams are having on business. My program THE CURIOUS CLARITY OF TEAMS, which debuted as both a stage presentation and an application workshop in October, is generating a ton of interest and I believe will lead the way into a strong team oriented New Year.
By the way, thanks for all the input my December newsletter generated!
HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE
AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
I just finished an interview for a syndicated writer about the good and evil of email.
I asked him why we are discussing email. Within a reasonably short time email will carry the same current status as a fax. I recently had a client ask me to fax something to them – HUH??? I have a fax machine (I think) but I’ll be damned if I know how to use it anymore. We are shifting to an instant message, text message world. It’s happening right before our eyes. Ask a teenager the last time they sent an email. They can’t remember. But ask them the last time they sent a text and they will tell you; “just now, while we were talking.”
Email was best suited for an on-line, off-line world. We are now a constantly connected world, if you don’t believe that you should hear the conversation going on in the bathroom stall at the Denver airport!
Communication is an evolving human activity. But, the writer had his heart set on a piece about email. I asked him when the last time he took a class on how to use email? Has he ever been trained in its proper use? The answer of course is NO. Email evolved organically, through repeated use that developed now acceptable patterns.
When we were in school we were taught how to write the English language. We knew how to punctuate, how to conjugate a verb, hell, we even knew how to spell. But the advent and default simplicity of email has created a world in which we push our conflict and uncomfortable conversations into. Don’t expect anything else from it – NO ONE HAS BEEN TAUGHT HOW TO USE IT.
The author asked for one key suggestion – Simple, I told him. SLOW DOWN. Don’t allow speed to overtake thought. Don’t allow speed to destroy empathy. If you take that one step it can help a lot of the email ills.
Gotta go, I think I hear my fax machine starting!
ENTERTAINMENT
MOVIES: The Tourist: A romantic, suspense filled romp with Angelina and Johnny should be really entertaining.
NetFlix Fans: Despicable Me: This animated film is destined to make my top 10 list for 2010!
TV: Check out Kidnap and Rescue on the Discovery Channel. It features real life stuff on kidnappings and rescues with re-enactments.
BOOKS: The Glass Rainbow – Burke: This is a Dave Robicheaux book. If you are unfamiliar with Dave, he is a New Orleans (New Iberia) based detective and the star of about a dozen books. Burke is one of the best writers in the business and his ability to paint a picture rich in southern culture makes him one of my favorite authors,
MUSIC: I am ALWAYS fascinated by the creative process. This is an intimate conversation/musical piece with Elvis Costello and Sting. Sting talks about the original version of Roxanne and plays an alternate few bars while Elvis gives us a few alternate bars of Allison. Artists love to play with their music! You will love this short video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgV6IOopi68
WEB SITES: Stuck in hotel rooms, I was watching a marathon of one of the survival shows and thought you ought to know this stuff.
http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/the-5-basic-survival-skills/
SOUTH OF NORMAL
I continue to be AMAZED at the Giving Pledge movement started by billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. In a nutshell, this unique fraternity of ultra wealthy folks who sign a pledge to give away most of their wealth to charity. You heard me right – GIVE AWAY almost all of their wealth to charity.
Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook and AOL co-founder Steve Case are two of the latest 16 billionaires to sign the pledge. The list now exceeds 50 international rich folks to be members of the Giving Pledge. Now I’m not talking about making big contributions, I’m talking about giving away almost ALL of the money. Now obviously they will not be beating a path to the poor house but this is still a huge commitment to make.
The Pledge does not ask for a certain amount, nor does it track the giving, it asks that a pledge governed by the giver signature be made to give away a majority of their wealth.
The US gave over $304 billion to charity last year (down about 3.6%) due to the hard economic times, but still a bucket load of money.
Many of those who have pledged want to give away their money while they are alive so they can govern how the money is spent.
What a wonderful South of Normal movement!
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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