Radiance on a Napkin

We were chatting over some great Thai food.

I said, “The conference last weekend was okay but the speakers were a long way from what I expected. Only four of them managed to come up with a new way to look at things. I expected a lot more originality. The biggest problem was the complexity of the graphics they used to describe their concepts. They were billed as thought-leaders but they weren’t.

I described sitting on the plane thinking back on box after box, gear upon gear, connecting lines and arrows, ad infinitum. What ever happened to simple?”

Simplicity

She replied, “So it didn’t meet your napkin concept—that the best ideas should be easily presented on a napkin, right?”

I agreed and proceeded to talk about a few of the best I’d seen:

· The Brand/Direct Scale, invented by a former client and his partner to build a way to show the difference in ROI dependent on the percentage of direct marketing versus Brand use in ads.

· The Consultant Value Jump developed by the Alan Weiss Community and shaped like a ski jump seen from the side that portrays how fees can be increased as engagement time decreases.

· The Promotional Whirl from the heart of my own Brand Gyro that uses over-lapping circles to make both the new Trust tools and traditional Spin Tools understandable.

· The Brand Introduction Curve a Marketing director and I put together for a training session with the divisional directors of a Fortune 500 company. The major difference we incorporated was using a full cross-hairs X-Y axis and showing all the time and costs in development before the product was introduced and began (with luck) to generate ROI

· The Brand Disruption Curve used by a management consultant friend from Toronto to convince clients to begin considering the mortality of their brands and how to be prepared for the shift.

Clarity

Using a napkin as your art board means you must strip away all the extras and get to the heart of your concept. Space can be a concern. Multi-faceted symbols can prove difficult to render. Writing can yield pathetic results.

Less is more in napkin conditions.

Radiance

She put down her chop sticks, picked up her purse, searched out a pen and then picked up a paper napkin. The waiter removed our dishes and she put the napkin in the middle of the table between us saying, “All those things about presenting an idea on a napkin you said are true but it also gives you one thing that is less expected. It makes your imagination a part of the concept. Let me show you.”

With that she drew a small box about a quarter inch on a side on the napkin. Three inches to the right of it she drew another. This one she filled in. Then she said, “Most people see decisions this way…black or white. And a few have been taught that there are many greys that separate them.

But I tell my clients to imagine the colors of the rainbow filling that space in the middle. Not only do we have more than two ways to go we have infinite choices, all of which can bring new light into our lives.”

Imagine your rainbow.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for Trust-based Brand development, Positioning and business development for independent professionals on and off-line.

Consulting: www.JerryFletcher.com
Speaking: www.NetworkingNinja.com

DIY Training: www.ingomu.com