The Elijah Project: The Future of Creative Consulting

Find out more about The Elijah Project by contacting Bill Cusano @ 201 755-1925

Welcome to your second career!

If you are old enough to remember when people would work for twenty or thirty years and retire, then chances are you have experienced at least one, if not several, job or even career changes in your life, and you are probably still working or looking for work.

While that may sound depressing, it is actually good news for a growing sector of our economy, small businesses.  They need your expertise in order to grow, and they need to grow in order to survive.

Do they know that?

They are beginning to get the message.  But there is a problem.  Expertise costs money - a lot of money, and small business owners don't have as much as they need to afford good advice and support.

There are three trends that, individually give us a pain in the pit of our stomachs, but collectively point to a solution that could ad should change our perspective on the future, from bleak to bright.

Trend #1 - Technology is Getting Faster, Cheaper and Smarter

What that means is that each day more and more people, at ever expanding levels of the economic and social spectrum are gaining access to information, entertainment, and just about everything and everyone else.  The competition to be heard and seen is greater than ever before and that spells opportunity for marketers, communicators, trainers, mentors, advertisers and sales professionals, anyone who can get a message across to a prospective client or customer.

Trend #2 - Everyone is a Broadcaster and a Receiver

While companies are scrambling to try to figure out how to jump on the social network bandwagon, they are failing to be leaders, and are lagging behind as followers of the trend.  In other words, the game is ever changing and the elusive customer or lead is becoming more elusive every day.  Instead of meeting the prospect in its world, they invite the potential customers into theirs, and that's not the way young audience works.  With the ability to create their own social circles and lock out everyone they don't want to let in, future customers can totally avoid the messages they don't want to receive.

Trend #3 - Past Sources of Low Cost Talent are Becoming More Expensive

Now you may not think India or China are high cost labor markets, and you would be right, but the cost is rising, especially if you add in what it costs in time and money to communicate specifications for a project across so many time zones and languages.  As the tools of the trades become more sophisticated (we can now create apps without coding and design brochures without a degree in graphic arts), the ability to train talent locally and put it to work quickly gives us a tremendous time advantage, and speed to market matters - a lot!

So, what do these three trends mean?

Faster and Inexpensive Technology reduces the cost of entry.

It opens up the whole world of the creative arts, from printed material like books, cards, brochures, programs, and now even 3-D output, like replacement body parts to commercials, independent films, music and live broadcasts.  

Everything creative can be produced inexpensively and broadcast anywhere.

From personal networks to locations across the globe, we can get the message to travel easily and cheaply.  And anyone can learn to do it!  

The Future Talent is available Today.

That is the key.  Everywhere we look, people need meaningful and well-paying jobs, to help them grow out of poverty or elevate themselves to a higher station in life.  Companies and schools have abandoned training people in the skills they need to compete in this changing world where creative talent is in such high demand.  

So, the solution is what we call The Elijah Project.  Named for the prophet who was called to come back after giving up and was nourished with food and wisdom, the project aims to feed and mentor people in need of work, while employing them on real assignments for clients willing to give them a chance.

Three players work together to make the solution work.  The first is the Sponsoring Business.  This is the entity that provides the mentor and gets the clients who need the work done.  The second is the Host Non-profit or Religious Institution that provides the space, recruits the apprentices and provides meals for them at the start of each workshop.  

The third is the Client itself, the small business or non-profit that is willing to work hand-in-hand with the mentor and apprentices to make this program work.  Involvement is critical to develop a working relationship and open the door for repeat business.  As the client's business grows, the opportunities for more projects grow as well.

In the process, we complete projects for small business or non-profit clients at a low enough cost to make it affordable for them.  The quality of work is high and the revenue from the assignments is split three ways: the contractor  the hosting non-profit that sponsors the program and the student apprentices.      

Cusano Marketing LLC developed The Elijah Project as a model for change as well as a way to meet the demands of low budget businesses and non-profits in areas of high unemployment or under-employment.  It is working in The Bronx and we are looking to spread across the country, with other businesses like us providing mentors and clients.

To learn more about The Elijah Project, contact us at StoryWizard@CusanoMarketing.com or DeaconBill@TheGardenBench.org.

Moving the Elephant

Getting people to make a decision is like trying to move an elephant.

In Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath, the authors split our human psychological makeup into two entities, the elephant and the rider.  

The elephant is our emotional powerhouse, that large force within us that is capable of accomplishing amazing things when moved to action.  It is a force so great that the rider, the rational embodiment of our willpower, has trouble controlling it without expending enormous amounts of energy, energy that is both expendable and exhaustible.

We do not, according to the authors, have an unlimited supply of this willpower, so when the going gets tough, when change becomes hard, we run out of steam and lose the battle.

In the first chapters of the book, they give examples of successful change agents in a variety of situations, all seemingly impossible and improbable, from saving lives in the healthcare industry to buying 1% milk.

Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

What is clear in all this is that change occurs when people are moved (emotionally engaged and prepared to act) and when they are given specific things to do, very specific things, like buying 1% milk instead of whole milk to reduce the intake of saturated fats in our diets.

We see examples of attempts to motivate us to change all the time in television commercials which play on our emotions to get us to talk to our doctors about a particular medication or take a test drive to feel all eyes upon us when we pull into our driveways.

But appealing to our emotions is only part of the package that leads to change.  What is needed is a clear path to follow, those specific actionable items that we can do to get us to the desired result, seeking that prescription from our doctors, or buying that BMW.

So, how do you make big changes in your business?  Or how can we survive in a world of change that seems to be way out of our control, with too many variables, with really big problems to solve?

The authors make a very interesting observation.  Too many options, too many steps, and we lose interest, fail to make a decision, and continue with the status quo.  Life is just too complicated, we say, and we do nothing.  

They give an example of a study of surgeons who had decided after the failure of a series of medications to combat arthritis, the patient would need knee replacement surgery.  However, when told by the pharmacy that there was one drug they hadn't tried, 47% of the doctors opted to prescribe the drug and avoid surgery.

That sounds promising, in that they were thinking of the patient experience and long recovery period.

But when they were told that there were actually two drugs that had not been tried, and not one, over 70% of the doctors would have opted for the surgery instead of prescribing either of the drugs.

What?

It seems that our analytical nature, the rider of the elephant, has trouble with decision making.  The more choices we have, the harder it is to steer the elephant off the usual path.  In this case, the path most familiar was the path of knee replacement.

So, how do we make big changes happen?  How do we move the elephant?

1. Appeal to the emotional side - make sure the motivation to change is there and it s real.  Our surgeons could be focused on the patient experience first.  What will he or she have to go through if we choose surgery?
2. Look for bright spots, examples where choosing the new path worked -  Talk with surgeons who have had success with alternatives to surgery and share their experiences.
3. Set a clear path - come up with a few simple steps or rules to follow to guide the decision-making process.  A simple rule could be to try every non-invasive approach first before opting for surgery.
4. Provide support and mentoring - Change is tough.  If you want it to be successful, you need to demonstrate strong commitment to it.

Change is critical to survival as well as for growth of our businesses.  Without it, we will see a steady decline in sales and revenues.  We will also continue doing what hasn't worked until we are too convinced it is the only way that we fail to see the reality around us.

So, take a look at the issues facing your business and imagine a world where those problems are miraculously solved.  What does it look like?  What can you do that you couldn't do before?  Now think.  Have you ever had moments where you felt like that?

Those are the moments to focus on, the examples of when things have gone right.  Moving the elephant is all about capitalizing on the simple things that work, rather than looking for the complicated solutions that are impossible to achieve.  

I like that.  It is the way I tend to think.  Thanks, guys, for helping me move the elephant.

Seeing the World Through Google Glass - An Explorer's Journal

Welcome to the mobile entertainment world where everyone is both star and director.  Welcome to Glass.

I completed my first week as an Explorer in the Google Glass project and I can honestly say that I am intrigued by the possibilities of Applied Functional Technology.  What is that?

While I may think I have dreamed it up, like most bright ideas, it has most likely surfaced in one form or another many times before.  That's exactly the point.  While I don't prescribe to the belief that there is nothing new in the world, that everything we invent is a reinvention of something from the past, or at best an update, I do believe true ingenuity comes from the way we apply these innovations to the problems we face in the real world.

In other words, the functions we perform by applying technology to the task at hand is what makes us look like geniuses, and perhaps that is what we are.  But if we are simply technology in search of an application, what good is that?  Enter the need for Explorers.

But let us back up a bit and explain what all the hype is about.

Just as we evolved as early adopters of mobile technology, device by device, from pager to PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) to Blackberry to iPhone to tablet, we now have companies (not just Google, but also others and startups as well) vying for center stage in the eyewear accessory market.  

So as the over seventy crowd plays technology catch-up, learning how to text with their grandchildren and great grandchildren, those who can afford the hefty $1500 price of entry, are experimenting with Google Glass.

What is it?

My Google Glass

Google Glass is an odd looking eyeglass frame with a built-in camera, touchpad, visual screen (that cube shaped glass over the right eye), and a clip-on polarized lens for outdoor wear.

People will think you look strange wearing it, partly because it is not your average run-of-the-mill pair of sunglasses, but also because you will be making strange gestures and head nods while wearing it.

It is not that easy to carry when you aren't wearing it, since the arms on the frame don't fold like real glasses, and after several minutes of continuous wearing, the right arm, which houses the battery and touchpad may make its presence known with the added weight on the ear, or by heating up, which it does if you are taking videos.

But don't let me give you the impression that I don't like the device.  I am still trying to figure out what it does best, how I might put it to practical use, and what features I would like to see in the general release.

That's where MyGlass (the accompanying app and website) comes in.  

MyGlass app on the Google Play Store.

As an Explorer, I get to add my thoughts to the community forum, now 20,000 users strong and soon to grow, as Google juts announced a program to expand the number of active Explorers.  I am still reading the most popular wishes of others who came before me, the true explorers, so I haven't put my list together yet, but it is being formed in the recesses of my brain.

My hope is that I will be able to share the experience with others, especially my clients in the medical profession who could benefit from a hands-free, voice-command camera, note-taker, web-browser, message taker and receiver, and whatever else it eventually becomes capable of doing.

So, stay tuned as we take this experiment for a spin.  

On Demand

Sometimes thinking outside the box is not enough.  We may have to experience life outside the box before we can train our brains to go there.

People often ask what the best platform is to reach the most prospects and while a standard answer may be "it depends on the market," that isn't really an answer, is it?

Another approach might be to consider delivering on as many platforms as possible.

That approach is exactly what we are doing for TRIARQ, the network of musculoskeletal medical professionals.  TRIARQ's quarterly symposium on the latest evidence-based research and developments affecting the prevention and treatment of sports and other common injuries takes place in Manhattan, often to an overflow crowd.  

Up until recently, the only way to participate in these events was to show up in person, and if you missed the live event, you needed to have a membership to have access to a learning portal to watch the recordings.

What we have done is change that model.

Not only did we broadcast the last event to viewers and participants in five countries, tearing down the barriers to participation with live chat, but we just took down the walls blocking access to the final video productions themselves.

The 2.5 hour event is now available ion demand n five episodes which may be rented or purchased separately or as a bundle from Vimeo.

And we are not stopping there.  We realize professionals are hungry for relevant and timely information from leading experts, and their time is not theirs to command, so we are working on more platforms for delivering educational material to the largest possible community, in a variety of forms.

Check out the video and follow the link at the end to the Vimeo site.  Let us know what you think of the content, and just as important, the quality of the production.  

Oh, and stay tuned.