"Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity, not a threat."

— Steve Jobs

Innovation as a business concept is an enigma. It's somehow obvious and easy to understand, while also being incredibly complex and difficult to implement. At its core, it's about nothing more than seeing change positively, and working hard to implement that change. Getting there, though, is far easier said than done.

When I was a child, I remember watching some grainy, black-and-white footage of an 8-foot zombie-type guy. He had a pudding bowl haircut, banged-up green skin, and bolts protruding either side of his neck. Not one for scary movies, I’m sure I would have scuttled out of the room and tried hard to forget the image I just saw.

Many decades later I can still see the original image of Frankenstein in my head as clear as day – his britches too short, his arms too long, his body lurching from side-to-side as he lumbers after his next target.

Turns out this childhood trauma ended up being a great metaphor for a very common marketing affliction, what I call Frankenstein marketing…

One cold, January morning, a young man in a baseball cap walked to a local subway station in Washington. He pulled out his violin, and, over the next 45 minutes he played his heart out, playing five of the most complex pieces of music ever written. Over a thousand people walked past. It was morning rush hour.

But no one took much notice. A few people stopped and threw a couple of dollars into his open violin case. One child yanked on his mommy’s hand and told her he wanted to stay to listen to the “cool music,” but they ended up staying only a few minutes. He counted the money he made - a total of $32.17. How ironic, given that the young man was none other than Joshua Bell, a Grammy award winner and one of the world’s most accomplished musicians.

As your company grows, your team expands. Just how that team expands, though, can make a major difference between sustainable success and failure. Fortunately, you can do something about it. The right hiring strategy can propel your team and company forward, allowing you to find the best possible candidates for your required skill set and culture. In this post, we'll walk you through the formula on how to find and hire great people…

Hope you had a great Superbowl Sunday! Did you know that Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest snack day of the year? Second only to, you guessed it, New Years Eve. I confess that I’m far more interested in the ads, and the strategy that sits underneath each of them, than the actual game.

Last year’s ads were terrible. This year’s weren’t much better. It seems that all the time spent home thanks to COVID did nothing to spark any big ideas.

If your business and marketing model is like most, you spend a LOT of time and resources attracting new customers. While attracting new clients is a critical piece of the puzzle, it's far from the only opportunity to build revenue and sustainable success. In fact, the real gold might just be in your existing customers.