Way to Promote Your Business!!

My wife and I have a water garden and keep koi. We belong to a club of other people who do likewise called the Capital Area Koi and Water Gardening Club.

Last night a fellow from a Michigan gardening business called Grass Roots, that deals in water gardening supplies and pond fish gave a presentation on how to open and clean one's pond in the spring. Given the matter-of-fact subject we could have been in for a llllooooonnnnggggg night.

But Scott was interesting, imaginative, and funny. How do you get funny out of cleaning the guck from the bottom of your pond?

Well, I don't know how but he did. He looked and sounded like someone from The Sopranos. He was chewing gum. He read from his notes.

Was it a polished, perfectly articulated, presentation complete with PowerPoint?

No. It was better! It was REAL! He was REAL!

He earned Grass Roots a lot of goodwill with about 40 folks who buy a lot of supplies and fish.

That means business.

Speak Up! Promote your business, your career, or your community organization by speaking to groups who can, and will, buy.

"Choice"

Watch this video.

Are the visuals you use in your presentations this powerful?

What pictures do your stories evoke in the minds of your audience?


Thanks to Dan Heath and the Made to Stick blog.



Do something...Different!

Different Worlds

When it comes to getting NEW ideas, there is nothing quite so useful as OLD ideas.

Huh?

Well, it has been said that "There is nothing new under the sun," but as Ambrose Bierce pointed out "there are lots of old things we don't know".

The trick is to look in different worlds for NEW old ideas.

Different worlds. Worlds outside of your organization. Worlds outside of your industry. Worlds outside of -well- your world.

I believe in the C.A.S.E. method of creativity... Copy And Steal Everything!

Now, don't get all up in arms. I'm not talking about stealing from colleagues, or plagiarizing, or some form of corporate skulduggery.

Let's take Howard Schultz as an example. One day in Italy, Schultz noticed all the espresso bars dotting the urban landscape. He thought wouldn't it be great if there were places like this, places to relax with friends, have a cuppa joe, write, a place outside work or home.

The result was Starbucks.

Have an open mind.
Pay attention. (Focus)
Capture.
Break away.
Connect back.
Refine.
Implement.

As Timothy Leary said, "If you don't like what you're doing, you can always pick up your needle and move to another groove."

Take an idea from a different world and use it in your world.