I think its time for a little overview. I have built Creative Ventures around a three part mantra, Simple, Powerful, Elegant. From that foundation I built three core business units: Presentations, our unique multimedia, interactive launching pad for our ideas; Education, our changing curriculum evolving around two principles, communication and thinking; and finally Application, our consulting services where we apply strategic platforms and work with existing strategies of our clients.

Everything we do revolves and evolves around three ideas and three lines of business.

As the third quarter is now upon us, I have hit the ground running. I am in the middle of over 22 consecutive weeks of travel taking me coast to coast working with my clients. London beckons in December as I once again become an international little company.

My current projects are a great combination of the three lines of business. I have keynote presentations (we have just finished our 4th quarter program content and visual updates), custom educational sessions, and consulting services around our Repeatable Successful Acts platform.

Someone recently asked me how hard it must be to work with so many different industries with completely unique markets. It made me remember a line from one of my favorite authors; Lee Child, when asked how hard it was to write a novel. He answered; “Hard? As compared to a Virginia coal miner, it’s not hard.” I have more fun with the constant challenge than you can ever imagine.

So if you have a project I say; “BRING IT ON!”

“Nothing that actually occurs is of the smallest importance”
– Oscar Wilde

Let’s talk about the meetings no one ever has. These meetings don’t occur because on the surface they appear absurd. What possible business sense would it make to spend time on subjects like this? Good question.

In reality, these odd subjects form the foundation of a new view of the relationship between you and your customers. Companies like Google, Apple, Netflix and Zappos that were born in the new age of global connections spend very valuable time in these unusual areas. So, gather your troop and have a series of these meetings:

The “LIKE” Meeting: Yeah, the “like” meeting. For the past 10 years more and more studies have confirmed a simple truth; people do business with people they like. In fact, this is the PRIMARY reason people do business with you. They simply like you. Why? How did this “like” relationship develop? You should KNOW this. You should study this. You should have a part of your sales platform that deals with likability. It is a BIG deal. Try this exercise:

• Gather your top producers and ask them to give a brief description of their relationship with their top three clients. It doesn’t matter what you sell or whether it is a retail, service, wholesale or point of transaction business. Simply define what people like about you, NOT the product/service (which they can probably get anywhere) but YOU. It can be defined... I know this because I have led a “like” movement for two of my clients.
• Once you can identify a few “like” elements, start replicating those that you see repeating in your exercise responses.
• Build a “LIKE “ model – It’s why people are doing business with you!

The “WHY” Meeting: I recently attended a meeting in which a series of initiatives were announced. Some were pretty far reaching and no one in the room had been involved in their development. Yet through the entire meeting NOT ONE PERSON EVER ASKED, WHY? Even as an outsider I thought to myself, on more than one occasion, why? Why is an incredibly important question. It sets in motion thinking. As systems grow they develop layer upon layer, rule upon rule, often spinning the system well beyond its original intended output. Try this simple WHY exercise:

• Ask your top team (sales, leaders, support staff) to list the rules or parts of the system that they find ridiculous or absurd. They will have ready access to these problems and issues as they experience them daily.
• Then ask a simple; “WHY” to each rule or system point they list.
• The outcome can drive new thinking and challenge the status quo that may be holding back both progress and potential. It is an opportunity to see something differently.

These “meetings” will open up a new approach that will build a very different model. Create an inclusive focus on your team and you will develop a real customer centric strategy.

The Man Who Fed The World: I have no trouble growing older and am comfortable with the passage of time, but I hate to see my heroes die. Dr. Norman Borlaug (1914 – 2009) agronomist, humanitarian, the “father of the green movement” recently passed away in Dallas. Many of you have heard me profile Dr. Borlaug in my program “They Shook The World” and if you check out my web site you will see me with an ear of corn, which I use to introduce his ideas. Dr. Borlaug was a Nobel Laureate, winner of the Congressional Gold Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science. When accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 he was credited as having saved 1 billion lives through his development of high yield, disease resistant crop varieties. Dr. Borlaug was truly a man whose vision “shook the world”.

My World Just Got Better: Two of my favorite all time companies have gotten married. Yep, Disney dug through the cushions of the corporate couches and found $4 billion in change to buy Marvel. Disney acquires a catalog of 5,000 characters and gets to do what they do best, expand content, licensing, movie making, theme park attractions and access distribution channels. Heck even the guys are Pixar are excited. This is a great marriage for both companies and we, the entertainment masses, will be the beneficiaries of this upcoming creative explosion.

People Make Things Happen: Organizations behave, but people DO. Reed Hastings the CEO of Netflix is an expert on people doing. He understands that at the end of the day, it’s people that drive ideas forward. Here is the Netflix idea of “people development”: We develop people by giving them the opportunity to develop themselves by providing challenges and surrounding them with superstars. Not a bad formula for success.

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CONTACT: Interested in these ideas?

You can contact Steve at steve@creativeventures.com or give him a call at 972-490-7717.