I've been fortunate to be a frequent guest on Jim Blasingame's show. But I turned the table on him when he was my guest on Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical. Listen to my interview of Jim B. about his views on Personal Brilliance. Click here.

Join me as I interview Blendtec Marketing Chief George Wright. (part 2 of 4) about how George uses the Personal Brilliance catalyst Curiosity in his successful life. I have some ideas on Curiosity for you as well.

George Wright is behind what has been called "The best viral marketing campaign ever." The Will it Blend? viral marketing campaign has changed the face and the future of online marketing.

Seen by more than 100 million people on the Internet and reported on by traditional media outlets like the Today Show, the Tonight Show, the History Channel, The Big Idea, etc. Will it Blend? continues to deliver unprecedented corporate awareness through social media channels.

This new form of marketing has delivered a 700 percent increase in sales for Blendtec, a small Utah based blender manufacturer, with an initial investment of only $50.

Some of this episode's highlights:

• The curiosity of a child
• Market segmentation - The Who question
• Perception - The What question
• The most overlooked question
• The feedback loop
• Beyond engagement as a measure of campaign success
• Curiosity as a test of effectiveness
• The two sides of each catalyst

Listen right now using the Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical On Demand web site. Also, catch up on past weekly episodes and see show notes.

You can also subscribe via iTunes or RSS with the buttons below.

http://www.pbpodcasts.com

Problem: Lack of space in grocery stores and shipping costs.

Solution: Grow square watermelons that stack easily and cost less to ship.

How: Genetic reengineering?

No, think simpler.

Got it yet?

How about growing the watermelon inside a square glass case so that it grows into the square shape desired?

That's what they did in Japan. See story.

Some tips this story provides:

Awareness

Awareness involves really understanding the problem and noticing 'all' the possible solutions, no matter how silly. Understanding the environment of the problem is also important. Self-awareness comes into play in understanding your capabilities to solve the problem. Usually we underestimate what we can get accomplished.

Curiosity

This all started with a question from the stores stating the problem. Curiosity continued as the assumptions about how watermelon grows were challenged. Can you suspend knowledge and ask the questions that allow you to entertain solutions that go against everything you know - like watermelons are round?

Focus

360 degree focus is necessary to move past staring at the watermelon and the crowded shelves. Can you visualize a solution? Next, take the complexity out of it. Use your lack of resources - namely plant genetics expertise. Is there a McGyver like solution that uses common tools?

Initiative

It takes initiative to take the first action steps to do something that everyone says is impossible. Try, you never know. An innovation may be right around the corner. If not, you certainly have learned something.

My friend Jim Kemp's job, early in his career, was to catalogue every piece of equipment, no matter how small, taken up in the space capsules for the Apollo missions. If you remember Apollo 13, this really came in handy when the astronauts had to make repairs with only the items on board.

For your next problem, stay inside the box. Is there a simple solution?

Join me as I interview Blendtec Marketing Chief George Wright. (part 1 of 4) about how George uses the Personal Brilliance catalyst Awareness in his successful life. I have some ideas on Awareness for you as well.

George Wright is behind what has been called "The best viral marketing campaign ever." The Will it Blend? viral marketing campaign has changed the face and the future of online marketing.

Seen by more than 100 million people on the Internet and reported on by traditional media outlets like the Today Show, the Tonight Show, the History Channel, The Big Idea, etc. Will it Blend? continues to deliver unprecedented corporate awareness through social media channels.

This new form of marketing has delivered a 700 percent increase in sales for Blendtec, a small Utah based blender manufacturer, with an initial investment of only $50.

Some of this episode's highlights:

• How Will it Blend? originated
• 5 million views in the first week
• The practical application of social media - 700% increase in sales
• Big increase in sales with little investment
• Are marketers lazy?
• Branded content vs. Advertising - The rules change
• Why demonstration of the product is a key component
• A wise view of success in both marketing and life in general
• Awareness exercise for a marketer - two questions
• Pay attention when you say, 'there's got to be a better way.'
• The three marketing awareness steps

Listen right now using the Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical On Demand web site. Also, catch up on past weekly episodes and see show notes.

You can also subscribe via iTunes or RSS with the buttons below.

http://www.pbpodcasts.com

From the MSNBC story: "She's a very smart girl, and she acted very responsibly," said police officer Lorenz Rasp.

I regularly work with people who say they have no ideas, and they aren't brilliant. You don't have to be a research scientist, or a CEO to be brilliant. Opportunities for brilliance appear every day.

Join me as I interview BzzAgent founder and CEO Dave Balter. (part 4 of 4) about how Dave uses the Personal Brilliance catalyst Initiative in his successful life. I have some ideas on Initiative for you as well.

Dave Balter is the founder and CEO of BzzAgent. Dave, a serial entrepreneur, has created a platform that allows people to experience new products and services, share their honest opinions so marketers can directly see the results. The BzzAgent community, over 400,000 strong, brings consumers and markets together to organize and track honest word-of-mouth.

There are a number of valuable lessons available from Dave from a Personal Brilliance - Habit of Innovation perspective. In this month's podcasts, we look at the startup of BzzAgent and the psychology of word-of-mouth marketing.

Some of this episode's highlights:

• What is initiative?
• Is ignoring advice appropriate?
• Ya gotta believe
• Innovation is changing the rules
• Why discipline in conversing with the market is key
• The unexpected one-on-one personal touch is a differentiator
• Examples of word-of-mouth initiative

Click the ODEO icon to go to the main Podcast page for Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical. Subscribe via iTunes, or subscribe via RSS.

There is a balance between reality and hopefulness. Some ideas are bad ideas. They won't fly. The marketplace will decide.

Only you can determine if it is good feedback or if you truly have an innovation - a practical product or service.

Seek a diversity of opinion. Make sure, before you abandon your idea. The experts aren't always right.

Null Hypothesis - The Journal of Unlikely Science highlights some of the rejections for some very successful ideas. Here are a few samples:

"Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value."

-- Editorial in the Boston Post, 1865

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."

-- Popular Mechanics, 1949

"X-rays are a hoax."

-- Lord Kelvin, ca. 1900

And of course brilliance from our elected officials:

"I am tired of all this thing called science...We have spent millions in that sort of thing for the last few years, and it is time it shold be stopped."

-- Simon Cameron, US Senator from Pennsylvania, 1861 demanding the funding for the Smithsonian Institution be cut off

Don't forget. You're Brilliant! No matter what anyone says.

Join me as I interview BzzAgent founder and CEO Dave Balter. (part 3 of 4) about how Dave uses the Personal Brilliance catalyst Focus in his successful life. I have some ideas on Focus for you as well.

Dave Balter is the founder and CEO of BzzAgent. Dave, a serial entrepreneur, has created a platform that allows people to experience new products and services, share their honest opinions so marketers can directly see the results. The BzzAgent community, over 400,000 strong, brings consumers and markets together to organize and track honest word-of-mouth.

There are a number of valuable lessons available from Dave from a Personal Brilliance - Habit of Innovation perspective. In this month's podcasts, we look at the startup of BzzAgent and the psychology of word-of-mouth marketing.

Some of this episode's highlights:

• How knowing what you're good at is critical to focus
• Why "bad" word-of-mouth may be a good thing
• How to take advantage of quiet advocates for your brand
• How dialogue contributes to success
• One word-of-mouth conversation equals 200 TV ads. Attention and engagement is key
• Word-of-mouth is not an interruption
• Why "breaking into" the mind-set of the consumer is not what marketing should be about
• Our top 40 list - can you appear on the list? Are you relevant?
• Why you can't ignore word-of-mouth

Click the ODEO icon to go to the main Podcast page for Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical. Subscribe via iTunes, or subscribe via RSS.

Newsweek reports that what scientists are now calling "Executive Function" could become the most important part of student assessment to predict success, even more important than IQ. Exercises are created for students that seem like play but promote the student to, "flex and enhance the brain's ability to switch gears, to suppress one piece of information and substitute in a new one."

This is exactly the approach of 360-degree focus. Maybe the PBQ will someday replace the IQ.

Join me as I interview BzzAgent founder and CEO Dave Balter. (part 2 of 4) about how Dave uses the Personal Brilliance catalyst Curiosity in his successful life. I have some ideas on Curiosity for you as well.

Dave Balter is the founder and CEO of BzzAgent. Dave, a serial entrepreneur, has created a platform that allows people to experience new products and services, share their honest opinions so marketers can directly see the results. The BzzAgent community, over 400,000 strong, brings consumers and markets together to organize and track honest word-of-mouth.

There are a number of valuable lessons available from Dave from a Personal Brilliance - Habit of Innovation perspective. In this month's podcasts, we look at the startup of BzzAgent and the psychology of word-of-mouth marketing.

Some of this episode's highlights:

• Why would anyone want to be a BzzAgent?
• Questions that should be asked by all marketers
• Why word-of-mouth is the scariest medium
• How to use curiosity to enhance market awareness
• Word-of-mouth on a global scale - cultural differences
• What an artist in residence or something like it can do for your company
• The most important question

Click the ODEO icon to go to the main Podcast page for Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical. Subscribe via iTunes, or subscribe via RSS.

Callie here. I learned of this new product - A Doggie Doorbell (see below). My reaction is mixed. First reaction is a loud - OH FOR GOODNESS SAKES! We're dogs. We bark. That's what we do. I'm a working dog. A doorbell to ask to get back in the house is just plain laziness.

Think of all the dogs that don't get to live inside. It's not right that we're so pampered we can't even give a single bark. I even regulate the volume based on the time of day because the humans are so touchy.

But, I've been hanging around this Personal Brilliance stuff for a while now and realize that laziness or more realistically, striving for convenience, is one of the great motivators of innovation in our society. Humans need the process of innovation to help fullfil their nature. So, I guess this gizmo is ok for lazy dogs. Just forget about implanting any microchips in me.

Doorbells for Dogs - Pet Chime(TREND HUNTER) I'm a little surprised this nifty little wireless device is not more commonly used, as the typical doorbell is not as easily accessible to most household pets. According to comforthouse.com, it is po… [More]

• Activities that don't interest you
• Self-consciousness
• Life balance
• A narrow focus
• Interruptions
• Physiology

Learn more about each barrier and tools to overcome them in chapter 13 of Personal Brilliance. We asked you to tell us, for each barrier, how often this is an issue for you. The results are informative.

• 37.5% of respondents say that Life balance is a barrier most of the time. Life balance is a big issue for many. We teach a seamless life balance in Personal Brilliance rather than a compartmentalization approach.
• Equally, respondents felt that Sometimes, each of the barriers come into play, having an impact on focus.
• No one selected Never for any of the barriers.

Thank you for your responses. The surveys really help us plan the content that will be most beneficial to you. We'll concentrate on focus for you in the near future.

Please answer the June survey that analyzes Initiative barriers. Click here.

I commented on this post that it is a great example of Personal Brilliance thinking. Especially Chris's discussion of thinking while doing other things. It's possible to process things while doing more mundane chores. This is consistent with our definition of 360 degree focus.

Chris's approach:

• Don't watch TV
• Think while doing other things
• Read good people
• Practice, and type a lot
• Connecting people

Check out Chris's writing to see Personal Brilliance in action.

Join me as I interview BzzAgent founder and CEO Dave Balter. (part 1 of 4) about how Dave uses the Personal Brilliance catalyst Awareness in his successful life. I have some ideas on Awareness for you as well.

Dave Balter is the founder and CEO of BzzAgent. Dave, a serial entrepreneur, has created a platform that allows people to experience new products and services, share their honest opinions so marketers can directly see the results. The BzzAgent community, over 400,000 strong, brings consumers and markets together to organize and track honest word-of-mouth.

There are a number of valuable lessons available from Dave from a Personal Brilliance - Habit of Innovation perspective. In this month's podcasts, we look at the startup of BzzAgent and the psychology of word-of-mouth marketing.

Some of this episode's highlights:

• The basis for starting BzzAgent
• How BzzAgent works
• Three rules of buzzing - the ethics of good word-of-mouth marketing
• The closed loop
• The unique release of the Word of Mouth Manual Volume II
• The difference between word-of-mouth, buzz, and viral
• Helping clients with self-awareness
• The 90 day awareness experiment
• The ethics of word-of-mouth - the three things that cause a problem

Click the ODEO icon to go to the main Podcast page for Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical. Subscribe via iTunes, or subscribe via RSS.

Join me as I interview Product Design expert Jim Jacobs. (part 4 of 4) about how Jim uses the Personal Brilliance catalyst Initiative in his successful life. I have some ideas on Initiative for you as well.

Jim Jacobs is the founder of the Savvy Consortium, which helps product developers learn and integrate elements of the lean Toyota Product Innovation, Design & Development System in their product development organizations.

Jim's experience includes 14 new product launches in 15 years working for large and small manufacturing organizations. Jim worked for several famous inventors and engineering leaders from which he learned to live and breathe innovation.

Some of this episode's highlights:

• Making ourselves smarter before initiative
• The best approach to begin using the Toyota System
• Top down is not necessarily always the best way
• The 4 / 2 / 1 model
• Why the procedure is just as important as the result

Click the ODEO icon to go to the main Podcast page for Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical. Subscribe via iTunes, or subscribe via RSS.

I received another political movie yesterday. This one was about (against) Barack Obama. The video told a story. It took many true events and cobbled them together into a damning video.

I won't tell you here who my candidate of choice is because it doesn't matter. You see, I've received very similar videos in my mailbox for the other two candidates as well.

These videos are simply attempts to justify a position. I'll bet the authors think they are finally providing the truth. But, whose truth?

In a corporate setting, if you come to a meeting with the goal of generating a solution but feel that your boss prefers a particular approach, are you really thinking clearly? You know it will be hard to explain any other approach than the one she wants. Do you participate the same way?

The political process proves that we can easily twist the facts to justify a position. Are we training ourselves to do this in other areas of our lives?

I just hope no one makes a movie about me, or that a police detective doesn't decide I'm guilty of a crime, or a co-worker doesn't decide I'm unfair...

Be brilliant!

Join me as I interview Product Design expert Jim Jacobs. (part 3 of 4) about how Jim uses the Personal Brilliance catalyst Focus in his successful life. I have some ideas on Focus for you as well.

Jim Jacobs is the founder of the Savvy Consortium, which helps product developers learn and integrate elements of the lean Toyota Product Innovation, Design & Development System in their product development organizations.

Jim's experience includes 14 new product launches in 15 years working for large and small manufacturing organizations. Jim worked for several famous inventors and engineering leaders from which he learned to live and breathe innovation.

Some of this episode's highlights:

• How laser focus can cause us to miss opportunities
• The basis for focus in the product design community
• How going slower can get a faster result
• How the result can explain and justify the process
• How a designer spends their time contrasted with a better way
• LAMDA relationship to focus and setting scope

Click the ODEO icon to go to the main Podcast page for Personal Brilliance - Up Close and Practical. Subscribe via iTunes, or subscribe via RSS.

For early adopters of innovation it's important to realize that there are people currently struggling with technology from a few years ago.

Clay contrasts time on the internet with time watching TV but he goes much deeper. In Personal Brilliance, we teach that every bit of input is valuable to the innovation process. When watching TV you are resting but something you see may spark an input to an idea. Without purposefully doing so, you are multi-tasking. He makes a very important point - "It is better to do something than to do nothing." And if participation is fostered more the better.

Clay argues that connectivity and participation is the next big thing. What do you think?