We have periodically talked about getting involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters, but the same problem keeps popping up its ugly head.

We just can’t afford the time commitment that they demand.

But recently I was contacted by Fresh Air Fund

You can get involved by letting an under privileged kid spend a 2-week summer vacation with you.

That’s it, just 2 weeks.

That really got my attention.  Could just two weeks really make a difference to a kid? That is what got me thinking because Big Brothers Big Sisters says you have to have a more long term commitment with these kids to make an impact.

But then I started thinking about my summer vacations. Those times where I got to do something different for a couple weeks are the once that I really remember.  The first time I really got to venture far from home was a result of an exchange program through my little league football team. The Purple Marauders arranged it so we got to stay at one of the competing team player’s family.

For 2 weeks in the summer.

I got to go to Pittsburgh, PA. May not sound exciting to you now, but as a kid that hadn’t ventured more than about 6 miles from home, it was pretty cool.

I remember that summer well.

I just found out about Fresh Air and I am gone all of July doing my creative thinking workshops, in London, Chicago (with Blackberry), and the Wizard Academy in Austin, Texas.

But we may be a host family in August if we can finish the home remodeling in time.

If not, we plan to sign up for next summer.

Check out this video of Brandon Mendoza

Fresh Air still needs some host families for this summer 2010, so please contact them if you want to change the life of an inner city kid this year.

As a minimum, I am going to work with Fresh Air and see if I can donate copies of my book Da Vinci and the 40 Answers to the host families. I know they could use the tools in the book to really come up with some creative ideas to make the kids summer vacation the best of a lifetime.

Please host a kid this year or donate to the Fresh Air Fund, it sounds like a great cause.

But I finally hit pay dirt when I called my life-long unlucky charm, David Gralla. Alas!.. He didn’t jinx me this time.

David, his wife Pat, and 9-year old daughter Sona agreed to meet us.

Besides us, the only people who are vertical at 6:50 am on a Sunday morning are 3 guys and one chick standing in the Jonathan’s parking lot waiting for the bar to open… at 7:00 am.

Seriously.

No hot air balloon in the history of the world as ever launched and flown out of Cocoa Beach.

Until now.

It’s in the record books.

I have been wanting to do it for years. The winds were finally right where I wanted them; 60 degrees at 8 knots.

Perfect.

We launched from Jonathan’s Pub, flew over the Cocoa Beach golf course and landed in Viera.

And without the involvement of city police, sheriff, civil air patrol, fire and rescue, NSA, or the FBI.

Not a single “authority-harassment.”  Not even any scruff from Jonathan.

It was great day.

Well it’s gonna happen. It may not be tomorrow, but the death of your star will come some day.

It’s a fact, so why not assume it is going to happen sooner than later?

One of the tools I use in my creative thinking workshops is to assume that my client can no longer make any money directly from selling the product to consumers anymore. In this case, how else could you make money from the product besides a direct sale? This exercise allows you to discover other revenue streams that you can capitalize on now. They are right under your nose; you just haven’t taken the time to smell them.

It’s kinda Google’s model in a sense. The primary product they have is “search” but it is given away for free. They make money on all the side doors.

What are your revenue side doors?

I recently applied this tool to a recent product I developed called Nest Egg Software. It is a revolutionary retirement planning software package which 100’s of thousands of dollars were spent in the development of it.  (Go get your free account, www.NestEggSoftware.com )

 
Of course I could easily sell the software, but I decided to give it away for free and apply the Sunken Ship philosophy before I ever launched the product. As part of the business model, I assumed I could never sell it directly to the consumer. I did this on purpose to expand my creative thinking and come up with different ways to make money with the concept without directly selling it to consumers.

Here is what I came up with as targets for revenue streams;

• Financial Advisors, who then use it in their practice for their clients
• Corporate HR departments:  as a benefit for employees and let them rebrand it as their own. Every employee hates HR and it gives HR a chance to give some benefits back to their workforce
• Advertizing space on www.NestEggSoftware.com
• Radio commercial spots integrated into the blog podcasts
• Refer the “free” consumers to financial advisors and obtain referral fees
• Find other companies who use the term “Nest Egg” in their branding and create partnerships
• Banks, brokers, and financial institutions allowing them to rebrand it for their customers.
• Retirement associations like AARP

These are just a few of the side door revenue streams we are going after in the business model. We also applied the principles of Word of Mouth Marketing in the business plan as the product was being developed. We will cover more on WOM in another post.

Side doors are all around you. Look for them and try opening a few.

3 – Start with the end first. What is the Last Mental Image (LMI) you want your audience to have stuck in their head after they have read or seen your ad?

1 – How to begin. That is the 2^nd most important step. What is the First Mental Image (FMI) you want your audience to have. Is the FMI impactful enough that it grabs your attention and makes you stop thinking about whatever you were thinking about just one second before.

 It has to be really different to work.

2 – What to leave out. The last step is to figure out what to leave out of the message to make it more interesting and impactful. We all tend to give too much information. We make it too long and boring.

Another  friend of mine, David Freeman,  is an expert consultant in making Hollywood movies. They have a term for it in Tinseltown called FSD: First Shitty Draft.

Everyone starts out with garbage the 1^st go around, so don’t get discouraged. David told me most of Dan Aykroyd’s FSD’s are off the scales on the “S” factor. It takes even Dan many, many versions to get it right.  Just right the ad then go back again and again to make it better before you go live with it.

Watch this advertisement. I think it does a beautiful job of applying these principles.

What was your LMI? What was your FMI? What did they leave out to make it more interesting and memorable ?

“Right… I know that, but we are talking about fluid ounces not weight ounces, there is a difference”

“No there’s not”

“OK, this 20 fluid ounce bottle of water weighs about 2 pounds, right?”

“Yep”…tossing it from hand to hand.

“So how much would a 20 fluid ounce bottle or mercury weigh? About 25 pounds, right? They are both 20 fluid ounces but different weight ounces”

“I still don’t think we landed on the moon”

David doesn’t like to dwell on subjects when they start to rub him the wrong way.

We were in Costco loading up supplies for Haiti and trying to keep track of how much everything weighs.

We were getting ready to fly to Haiti to deliver supplies to the Earthquake victims there. David McInnis was so generous and kind hearted; he was flying his personal plane, a Pilatus N116TH, all week long from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to various landing strips in Haiti.

We needed to make sure we didn’t overload the airplane with too much cargo since all planes have weight limitations. Too much weight and you could pile up at the end of the runway on take off.

I wasn’t about to have my tombstone read “Chemical Engineer, but still could not add.”

We loaded up the plane and realized we hade the ability to load another 600 pounds. Coordinators on the tarmac were asking all the planes there headed for Haiti if they could take on a little bit more cargo from the stockpile of donations. Literally tons of them.

Cup O’ soup, sterno, children’s Tylenol, Vienna sausages, tuna, bottled water, rice, and a dozen soccer balls from our Costco run. Cases of canned goods from donations.

Airborne over the Atlantic with 1200 pounds worth of goodies,  along with big dose of turbulence to keep all 3 of us on edge.

“Does this plane not pull fuel from both wings at the same time?”

“Yes, why?”

“How come the right tank is at 75% full and the left is still completely full?”

“Good question”

“And why is the right fuel pump light on?”

“Good question”

5 minutes of head scratching.

“I think we are venting!”

“What the F$%#!, Is this Apollo 13?”

“Do you see a contrail-like looking stream coming off the right wing tip?”

“Uh….no….. like what?”

“Like this” as Bob pointed out the left wing. I leaned over to see what he was talking about. Holy shit, is that fuel? We are venting fuel?”

Suddenly the ocean in the windshield looked bigger than I had ever seen before.

We took turns flying the plane and trying to troubleshoot the problem by reading the emergency procedures.

“Try pulling that breaker. No, not that one, the other one. OK maybe reset the mains. Maybe try pushing the breaker back in. Try another one. OK maybe that one.”

“Can we reboot this whole thing?”

We tried a couple dozen things, not being sure if we solved the problem. We sat there and starred at the left fuel gauge. Finally it started to drop. We were burning fuel on the left tank OK now. A visual check out the window and no more venting.

We just had our glitch for this mission.

Not sure how we fixed it but hopefully it was gone.

Gremlins.

Nice ride all the way to Haiti after that. Definitely the coolest airplane I have ever flown.
Descending from 26,000 feet we finally dropped into the clouds. I kept double checking the height of the terrain on the radar to make sure we stood clear.

Bob nailed a perfect landing.

As soon as we started to offload the goodies, it began to pour down like crazy.

Then McSmartAss did it.

He threatened to do it, but I wasn’t sure he would go through with it.

The mayor of Jacmal had decided a day earlier that he was now going to charge pilots a $22 landing fee. Rightfully so this really pissed David McInnis off. He had been spending is own time and resources to the tune of thousands of dollars out of his own pocket to help the Haiti people.

Then this butt-head Mayor decided to line his own pockets with a new “landing fee” tax.
When the mayor asked for the $22, McSmartAss handed him a shoe box full of pennies. $22 dollars worth. About 20 pounds worth.

“That is Shit money! You insult me!”

“No, this is valid U.S. Currency.”

By this time Bob and I were already heading off into the distance to avoid the gun fire.
We hid behind a King Air that had crashed a couple days before.

By some miracle, we didn’t hear any gun shots or see any RPG’s. Not sure how he pulled that off.

Back in the Pilatus heading for home.

We could not see any of the damage at Port-Au-Prince, the cloud level had it completely covered.
One of the doctors in Ft. Lauderdale, before we had left, had just returned from Port-Au-Prince.
He told me his team was doing about 200 amputations a day.

That is what I saw I my mind’s eye beneath the clouds.

The flight home was smooth in the night-time air. We were watching the fuel the whole time wondering if we had enough to make it back to Ft. Lauderdale or if we would have to land in the Bahamas for fuel. None of us want to do that if we didn’t have to. It was getting late and it would add a couple hours of postponement to bed time.

“We should be fine as long as we don’t hit any head wind”

About 13 minutes later a 43 knot head wind smacked us right in the kisser.

The FAA wanted us to start our decent in Ft. Lauderdale from about 100 miles out to sea. We asked if we could stay at 26,000 until the last minute to save on fuel.

They said no.

We said pretty please.

“Are you in “min” fuel situation?”

“Yes”

The let us stay at 26,000.

Cool.

We landed with 8% left in the tanks.

Good luck Haiti.

Death Valley in July

or

Santa is December

No I am not some kind of Scrooge; I just want to show you an example of how you can use deliberate creativity.

A tool to help you think “how to think.”

If you’re running holiday advertising with some version of St. Nick, you may need a few new stocking stuffers.

Differentiate yourself from the competition by using the power of TRIZ. It allows you to view the world from a different perspective.

The 40 “Lenses” of TRIZ allow you to see things differently. Like the proverbial Rose-Colored Glasses, but in this case we are not looking at the world with a delusional positive view, we are looking for creative solutions to real problems.

Let’s look at recent example.

TRIZ Lens 13 is “The Other Way Round” and it is applied pretty much the way it sounds. Do it backwards, apply the opposite…or go the other way round to be different and creative.

So how could we do the opposite for a radio commercial at Christmastime?

I applied the lens of “Other Way Round” to a client of mine: Amish Furniture Outlet.

This lead me to think:

“What is another holiday symbol I could use to substitute for Santa?

What would be unexpected?

Ah – Easter Bunny!

Wait a minute. Is the Easter Bunny a boy or girl? Hum. Not sure.

Googled it. No clear answer.

I decide to go with girl. Mostly because they sound better than us guys. OK if I am going to use a women’s voice, applying “Other Way Round” again I’ll use a voice that in non-American sounding. Throw in a little humor here and there and presto!”

Click the arrow below

[podcast]http://www.tangenttime.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Easter_Bunny_Female.mp3[/podcast]

“Easter Bunny here. Yeah it’s Christmas. But Amish Furniture figured you’re ‘so-over’ that Beet-Red, bag of wind. Come on – That Kringle clown’s not even real.
 
Amish Furniture Outlet hired me as their spokesrabbit for this holiday season. Why ? because at Amish Furniture you get the unexpected.
 
You won’t find that rickety, saw dust, press-on nail furniture those other’s guys push on you. Amish Furniture Outlet only makes hand-made, solid wood furniture, designed and built specifically for you.

Meet me @ AMISH FURNITURE OUTLET dot CA.”

If anyone wants the actual video, they can download it here. I uploaded it to YouTube but it didn’t look good. I think YouTube compressed it too much.

If you anyone wants to send me more pictures and/or another song MP3, I can make a lot more of them.

(p.s. Note for Bailey and Corn - If you just want to play it, click on the white triangle in the middle of the image. That’s right, just click it)

You, Me, and one other person.

 I can’t remember who the 3rd was right now…but…

I know for sure it wasn’t HER”

———-

“Why didn’t you ever like me?

“What are you talking about? What do you mean I didn’t like you? Of course I did!

———-

“I am really good at this game. If I had my real clubs that’s when I would really shine!

Also I am really good at business and making money. I am a natural at it.”

“I guess you don’t need any help with personal confidence and self esteem?”

“Hey I just call it the way it is.”

“I guess it just went up another notch then…hey?”

———-

“Hey, how’s it going?”

“Umm….WOW!.

I don’t want to freak you out or anything….but several people told me you were dead!”

———-

“Don’t make me tell the sailboat story again, that’s 10 times now!

Well OK.”

I told him to keep the boat straight for 18 seconds while I went to the cabin to get a beer. 10 seconds later; there was a girl unconscious, the need for 10 stitches, and the engine fell off the back of the boat.

Had to carry her across the river to a house. Call my mom to come pick us up…then there was the hospital scene…Oh yes… the hospital scene…

———-

(She never spoke to you at the 10th or the 20th. Now it looks like she may say hello after 30 years)

“So where do you live now?

“At blah, blah. It is near blah.”

“Really? I live near such and such in the same town.

“Where is such and such?”

“By the thing-a-ma-jig.”

“I never heard of that.”

“By the wamp-wamp.”

“Never heard of that either.”

Silent stare.

———-

“You are married with 4 kids and all 4 of them are girls!?

Oh my God, are you kidding? What is that like?”

“You can’t imagine what going out to dinner is like on Friday nights.”

———-

“Where the hell is he?

“He said he was too good to come hang out with a bunch of losers like us.”

“I guess a lot hasn’t changed with him. Is he still good looking?

“Yes……in an “old” sort of way.”

———–

“You don’t remember me?

“Umm….No”

“I lived across the street from you.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Are you kidding me? You don’t remember?”

———-

“Look…I think you are very attractive, but you have to stop pulling me that close to you. It is starting to turn me on…and well that can’t possibly turn out good for several people.”

———-

“Happy Birthday to you…Happy Birthday to you…Happy Birthday dear…

Silence.

Then…

Group laughter.

———-

“Why is it the people who live a mile from here can’t seem to get off their ass and show up?”

———-

“Well you are right. I did hate you for a long time. But I think I am over it now. Let me grab another drink and think about it.”

———-

“You look great, you lost weight didn’t you?”

“Yes…thanks,  me and my sister both thought it was getting out of hand and had to do something.”

“Thanks for noticing!”

———-

“Get over here and say hi to my parents.”

“Why so they can yell at me again?”

———-

 
I always look forward to class reunions. I mean I really do.

But I always know immediately afterwards I will experience contradicting emotions  simultaneously. It is almost impossible to explain.

I feel very joyful and excited that I got to see so many people, some after so many years. But then I feel bad because I didn’t get to spend enough time talking to each of them. Too many friends, too much to catch up on, and not enough time.

Wow…that is a cool problem to have. Too many friends. Imagine.

———- 

One of the board members at my Academy is a clinical psychologist.

He said: “The opposite of depression is not Yippee!, Yahoo! Or YeeHaw!

The opposite of “Depression” is “Gratitude.”

Maybe after this weekend I finally know what he means by that.

Depression vs. Gratitude.

With a 100 decisions to make a day, I figure I have come across about 2 million of them in my half of century on this planet.

What could’a, should’a been?

Who knows?

Did I always make the right decision?

Well of course not.

Wait a minute. What does “right” mean?

Gratitude.

I am a pretty lucky guy.

I think I’ll be all right.

Specifically Women in Defense.

Each attendee received a physical copy of my Innovation Book.

“Thank you for coming to Picatinny!   I thoroughly enjoyed your Innovation presentation, as I know all of the audience did. Thank you so much for a copy of your innovation book: Da Vinci and the 40 Answers. What a cool way to teach TRIZ.”

“Thank YOU for enlightening everyone and for a copy of your innovation book. I can not believe you decided to give your innovation book away for fee. Wow – That’s generosity. What goes around comes around. Thank you.”

Yes that is right. I have decided to provide the entire innovation book for free in electronic (PDF) format.

“Your presentation was enjoyable, informative and motivational. Your delivery was down to earth (excuse the pun) and challenged each of us to examine how we interacted with life. I found your innovation examples on how to integrate the principles of TRIZ fascinating, intriguing and comical.”
 
You can find the link here Innovation Book.

Let me know what you think of it.

Mark L. Fox
slyasafox.com

In the days of $7 pillows, blankets and Budweiser’s pretty much anything the airlines do that is positive comes as a surprise.

When everyone in your industry sucks, even a little gesture can make a difference.

On October 16th, our flight was an hour delayed since our plane had not yet arrived. Once we all boarded, we taxied out to the end of the runway. After some delay my suspicions were confirmed.

“Ladies and Gentleman, this is your Captain Evans with an update from the cockpit up here. We have a computer problem and we have called maintenance. They are going to come out to us here on the taxiway and see if they can trouble shoot it here.”

40 minutes later.

“Ladies and Gentleman, Captain Evans here again with an update. Unfortunately they can’t fix it from here so we will have to taxi back to the gate.”

Of course they would not less us off the plane when we got back. Just in case we had to make a run for it.

45 minutes later.

“OK folks, looks like we have got it fixed now. It was just our backup computer, but we need to make sure we were safe. As soon as we get the paperwork buttoned up we will be on our way.”

30 minutes later we start our taxi and eventually take off.

Now for those of you who travel, you know this in not unusual.

But when this happens the most you ever get from the airline is “folks thanks for being patient with us today” as you exit the airplane.

Yeah I know it is only a $25 voucher. But at least it is something. And because they did not promise anything, it did come as a surprise.

It made me feel a little better about JetBlue. I can’t tell you how many times I have been delayed on Delta and never received anything.

I think Southwest’s “Bags fly free” campaign is brilliant. Brilliant because it’s not that hard.

Look at what all the others in your industry and do the opposite. Especially if what they’re doing is absolutely stupid.

Like $7 pillows and $100 bags.

Mark L. Fox
slyasafox.com