The Beach Bar Blog
By Doug Hall
Inventor, Author, Whiskey Maker
Founder of Eureka! Ranch International & Co-Founder of Brain Brew Custom Whiskey
The Beach Bar Blog is a collection of conversations – like those at our Beach Bars in Newtown, Ohio & PEI, Canada. The conversations are an informal mix of insight, wisdom and just plain foolishness. Enjoy!
Beach Bar Blog Posts
As Confidence Goes Down, We Need to Reinvent How We Create
The Beach Bar Blog is about giving people hope in these challenging times. Usually it’s with a smile, a story or an optimistic perspective. This week is different, it’s more on the real and tangible hope side.... Online Brainstorming Beats In Person I am now convinced that online brainstorming is how brainstorming should always be done - even after COVID. I can’t believe I’m saying this because for over 40 years we ran Eureka! Inventing in person. Changing it, as the graph shows, when...
GET UP – GET GOING – 18 Years is Long Enough to Procrastinate 🙂
18 years ago, I tore out a recipe for Baked Alaska from the August 26, 2002 issue of Saveur Magazine. It’s a classic dessert where ice cream is baked in a hot oven - insulated by sponge cake and meringue. It’s best known as the dessert that cruise ships often serve with sparklers on top on the last night at sea. This past week for my wife’s birthday, I finally cooked it. I hit a few “speed bumps” in making it - but in the end it worked and was INCREDIBLE. We laughed as we ate it -...
Time To Release From “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda”
What I’m thinking about this week is the need to release from “woulda, coulda, shoulda.” The past is past. It’s time to focus on the meaningfulness of THIS MOMENT. It’s time to focus on creating the TODAY and TOMORROW that is our calling. With the world filled with covid, it’s easy to embrace the blame game. It’s easy to hold onto what is wrong. It’s easy to become focused on what CAN’T WE DO - as opposed to what is possible. Challenging times, challenge...
Why do I Love SunRise AND MoonRise?
I am captivated when I get see the sun rising in the morning. I am equally captivated when I get to see the moon rising in the evening. Nearly every morning here on Prince Edward Island when I come down the stairs and see the sun rising, I can’t stop looking at it. I watch the sunrise from the front porch and from the window in my office. I’m not sure why I love both of these experiences. For some reason, even through the sunset looks like a sunrise, it just doesn’t excite me as...
Everyone Sees Things Differently
Debbie and I can’t leave our property on Prince Edward Island, however, the property includes the Brain Brew Beach Bar land. This week we took Lexi with us and as the photo indicates, my wife and I saw the recent “warm weather” on Prince Edward Island differently. While the two of us agree on many things, it’s the differences between us that add spice and fun to living. Imagine how boring it would be to be with people who only think and act the same as you. Now, I do understand...
Savoring the Positives
Nine days from now I will be less judgmental of Covid Restrictions than I was five days ago. My wife and I are in Canada at our home on Prince Edward Island (PEI). PEI is a small province. It has an amazingly low level of COVID infections. Yes it’s an island and yes it’s a population that is unique (a conservative government ran for election once on implementing mandatory four bin sorting of trash to reduce waste and increase recycling and won with over 70% of the vote). PEI...
Stop & Savor the Wonder
Jimmy Buffet is the “Patron Saint” of the Beach Bar. Bruce Springsteen is the “Patron Saint” of Brain Brew Custom Whiskey. In a recent interview in of all places, AARP Magazine, Bruce spoke about where he gets his inspiration: “You have your antenna out,” he says. “You’re just walking through the world and you’re picking up these signals of emotions and spirit and history and events, today’s events and past remembrances. These things you divine from the air are all intangible elements:...
Wisdom From My Great Grandfather
As you can tell by the photo, my Great Grandfather Will Holder, was a sail maker. More than that, he was an innovator. He was the first to bring “sewing machines” into a sail loft. At the age of 95, my Great Grandfather Holder was asked his philosophy for life. His answer was simple: “One time you’re down, another time you’re up and you’re down again and you come up again.” What Will meant is that we need to accept the rhythms of life. Life is not a never ending ramp of continuing...
Believing in Better is a Choice
This week on my morning jog around the Beach Bar Lake, I turned the corner, stopped and snapped this photo. The scene struck me. It offered a path. It offered hope to those who believe that tomorrow can and will be better than today. For reasons I don’t fully understand, it also reminded me of a quote from The Empire Strikes Back - after Yoda raises an x-wing from the Dagobah swamp: LUKE: I don’t believe it. YODA: That is why you fail LINK to Video...
Get Up! Get Out! Do Something Different!
I find that fall and spring are both filled with hope and opportunity. Part of this comes from being born and brought up in Maine, New Hampshire and Prince Edward Island. Both spring and fall are times for rebirth. Both engage a ritual of putting away one set of clothes and pulling the next season’s clothes from the back of the closet. With the crazed world of today, rebirth is something we all need more of. We need to restart and disengage from the political and covid “noise” that can...
Thankfulness – An Antidote for Tribalism
Talk around the Beach Bar over the past week has been about the anger inherent in tribalism across today’s world. When we are THANKFUL we embrace the good in the world. When we are ANGRY we digest the bad in the world. Expressing anger makes us feel good in the moment - as our ego is stroked and we feel a sense of belonging to our tribe. However, the good feelings are shallow and destructive. Thankfulness provides a lasting warmth to our body, mind and soul. It...
Cooking Advice for Living Life
A recent quote by chef Jacques Pepin on cooking is great advice on LIVING and INNOVATING, especially in a Covid world: “Cooking / LIVING / INNOVATING is the art of adjustment. It is not always about following the recipe. The recipe is a guide but also a restraint. When you cook / LIVE / INNOVATE, you cannot just follow the recipe, you have to adjust to the product / SITUATION that is in front of you. The pears / ENVIRONMENT might be more or less ripe, more or less juicy,...
Charles Dickens & Mindset
Lexi feels it’s the BEST of TIMES! Around the campfire recently, we talked about how happy our dog Lexi is with Covid-19. She gets more walks and gets to hang out with us all day. The conversation reminded me of the famous Charles Dickens quote: "It was the BEST of times, it was the WORST of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything...
Ignorance & Meatballs 🙂
Feeling ignorant of what to do? Feeling ignorant on how to plan for the future? You’re not alone… In a recent interview, Alan Alda of M*A*S*H fame offered advice on dealing with ignorance: “We don’t value our ignorance enough. Ignorance is really good to have if it is combined with curiosity, and scientists are professional curiosity machines. We should all imitate that as much as possible.” Replacing the anxiety of feeling ignorant - with the wonder of curiosity is a wicked cool...
The Nature Fix
This past week the temperature retreated from the 90s to a more reasonable 70s and low 80s. As the temperature came down, I’ve been getting outside more. I’ve been jogging around the lake, kayaking, swimming and eating outside more. In the process I’ve rediscovered something I learned last summer about the restorative nature of being outdoors. Being outdoors more each day has been up-lifting. I said rediscovered because I first learned this last summer when I read the book...
What Matters
A new mindset is growing on what matters and what doesn’t. As the sun sank down over the lake at the Beach Bar recently, the conversation turned to how each of us has changed our mindset on what matters and what doesn’t. With the new mindset, what used to be considered “annoying” has changed. When you hear of friends who are sick with COVID, or worse, you change your perspective. Someone cutting the line in front of you in the grocery store just doesn’t matter. They may be...
Sailing with the Winds
Today it’s time to put away the motor boat and enjoy sailing. Motor boats are direct. You simply point the bow, give it some throttle, and off you go from here to there. Sailboats are indirect. Sailers work with the wind that is available. This makes sailing a more mindful experience than a motor boat. A Problem with Wind Shift The Beach Bar in Cincinnati is at the northeast end of the lake. The winds normally blow from the opposite, southwest, end of the lake. This means that after...
My Advice – STAY HUMAN
As I sipped coffee on the dock as the sun came up, my mind was bouncing through the latest news of the day and my reality. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find solutions to the cascading issues, uncertainties, and unknowns. I snapped the attached photo as the lake lit up in beauty. After another sip, I laughed to myself as I was reminded of the first few weekends of our hand sanitizer donation program. As people expressed their thanks and wonder that we were giving it...
An Optimistic Look at an Ugly COVID-19 Forecast
As whole fish cooked on the fire at the Beach Bar in Ohio a few nights ago, the conversation, as it’s prone to do this summer, turned to COVID-19. Earlier in the day, a Doctor who is part of national efforts to address COVID-19 told me that the group he is a part of is assuming that Covid-19 will be with us for two more years! I related what I’d heard and the reaction was YIKES! Actually it was a bigger reaction, but let’s keep the blog clean :). Before the debate on if it was going to be...
Books Worth Reading This Summer 2020
Books Worth Reading - Summer of 2020 I recently cleaned my book shelves in my office. In the process I found some “gems” of books that I’d bought and never gotten around to reading. Here’s some I strongly recommend reading this summer. Never have Your Dog Stuffed and Other Things by Alan Alda The star of the tv series MASH - writes about his life and about living. It’s incredibly well written. It’s one of those rare biographies that makes you think....
Doug’s Innovation News Blog
What are you doing today?
During a planning call for a conference I’m speaking at in Madrid. I was asked how I wanted to be introduced I said, “don’t say what I’ve done – that can be read in my bio.”
I went on to explain – “Instead of telling people what I’ve done tell them what I’m doing today.”
Right now I’m working with the Ranch team to change the world through systems that enable everyone to think smarter, faster and more innovatively.
The past has past.
The time to live is today.
If you don’t have a mission that matters to you today – then get one. Read books on mission, on mindfulness, on living in this moment. If you can’t find a book read Chapter 9 of Driving Eureka!. It defines a system for gaining alignment between you and your mission at this moment.
This message of living in this moment – not yesterday – is best articulated by Springsteen in his song, Glory Days. It’s reported that it was based on the true story of a random meeting he had with a friend from his youth.
I had a friend was a big baseball player Back in high school…Saw him the other night at this roadside barI was walking in, he was walking outWe went back inside sat down had a few drinksBut all he kept talking about was
Glory days, well, they’ll pass you byGlory days…
SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
Are you talking to the 18% & ignoring the 82%?
It was a Eureka! Moment. I was leading a WHISKeY and Cocktail tasting to raise money for the College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts of Canada.
I gave a 15 minute presentation on the world of WHISKeY and COCKTAILS. Immediately a 50 something male came to me and said, “Thank you for not making me feel stupid. I want to learn about whiskey – but feel very intimidated.”
I felt both guilty & excited. GUILTY that 70% of my presentation was focused on whiskey lovers. I felt EXCITED because while WHISKeY is a big industry it has low penetration (just 18% over the past 12 months).
Suddenly I realized that the industry, and me included are saying and doing things that make it difficult for new customers to join the world of WHISKeY drinkers.
I tested my theory the next night by focusing on inclusiveness. I addressed the myth that WHISKeY must be drank “neat” explaining it was just 10% of consumption. I explained that cocktails are over 50% of consumption. I invited them to come to my tasting table where I would customize a whiskey and cocktail (% alcohol & sugar level) for them.
It worked new whiskey lovers were created. Whiskey lovers thanked me for the education AND for helping their partners find a whiskey & cocktail they love.
THINK Are you talking to the 18% & ignoring the 82%?
The Importance of 11 Seconds
Research finds that to be successful with marketing you need to communicate your MEANINGFUL UNIQUENESS in 11 seconds!
That means you need to be really sharp and precise with the message you use in your headline or the opening to your video.
TODAY YOU NEED TO REVERSE YOUR MESSAGE.
In the past you would build up to the big “reveal”
In today’s work you need to be overt, precise and brutally clear about your WOW.
Interestingly – this new learning actually CONFIRMS the critical importance of headlines – based on quantitative data reported by David Ogilvy years ago in Ogilvy on Advertising and that I reported in my book Jump Start Your Business Brain based on tracking studies on over 10,000 innovations. My latest book Driving Eureka! Gives even more data to support this.
Facebook video data also shows that most videos on the web are played with no sound – so you must have clear visuals and subtitles on them!
Creating A Difference That Makes a Difference
Creating a difference that makes a difference … is the purpose of life.
In simple terms a difference that makes a difference is…
– A BIG Idea
A True INNOVATION
A Meaningfully Unique product or service improvement
Something that builds PRIDE among workers
Something that ignites word of mouth
The barrier to making a difference that makes a difference is that our teams and cultures embrace being practical and prudent. We accept that “we can’t”.
As we enter September – it’s time for all of us to say NO to compromises. It’s time for all of us to come together to create a difference that makes a difference!
The first and most important step in making a difference that makes a difference is being honest with yourself, your team, and boss about what you are focusing your energy on.
Are you working on REAL STUFF that matters?
Are you EXCITED about how you are spending your time?
If not – NO STRESS – it’s time to pivot, adapt and begin again…
Ignite a plan for change…
LEARN MORE: Nothing will help you restart better than education. Read any of the amazing books out there on innovation, change and creativity. If you can’t find one – here’s a FREE LINK to the abridge one hour audio of my latest book Driving Eureka!
SPEED BUILD A NEW VISION: Gather a team of “willing change agents” and invest 2 to 4 days in “speed building” a new vision. Over the past nearly 40 years we’ve found that when teams get out of their office and FOCUS on creating a new reality – thinking through all of the stuff… finance, customer, consumer, legal, regulatory, manufacturing, etc.. then big ideas happen.
CHANGE HOW YOUR TEAM WORKS: Instead of handing the idea from department to department – approach the development as a journey of never ending innovation. As your idea moves forward let the idea change, adapt, adjust – keeping your entire team focused on MAKING A DIFFERENCE THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE.
3 IS THE MAGIC NUMBER
Research finds that customers are 3 TIMES more likely to purchases when they LIKE the environment.
At the University of British Columbia students were shown the advertisements for products. In one case there was music playing that the students enjoyed. In the other case they were playing music that annoyed the students.
At the completion of the presentation the students were given the opportunity to purchase a small item. 3 TIMES more students bought when they were in the environment that played the music they enjoyed.
As Ben Franklin said, “If you would be loved, love and be lovable.” When you are making your pitch – make your environment as friendly and as likable as possible.
When presenting data to a customer you will be most effective if:
A) You provide a clear & simple chartB) You explain the data in clear & simple words
The correct answer is B, you explain the data in clear & simple words.
Research shows that when you use simple words versus a chard with numbers and percents – WORDS are 2 times more effective at communicating the marketing message. And 3 TIMES more effective at increasing purchase intent.
So if you want someone to really get the message you’re sending, don’t get clever with charts and graphs. Say it with words – the straightforward, easy way to get your point across and increase the chance that your customers will take action.
When attempting to make a sale research finds that the best return on your investment of time and money is to make 3 ATTEMPTS.
Ignite CURIOSITY with your first personal pitch, marketing advertisement or mailing. It should provoke interest through a mind opening thought designed to get your customers to stop, listen and most importantly THINK.
Your second pitch should deepen UNDERSTANDING and should explain with clarity how what you promised in the first pitch can be delivered.
The third pitch should focus on enabling them to make a DECISION. It should address any key concerns and most importantly always ASK for the sale.
Most people make one pitch and give up. DON’T! Always make three pitches in order to ignite curiosity, understanding and enable a decision. Your sales dreams are much more likely to come true.
How Focus Can Change Your Business
Significant overall sales growth can be realized if:
A) You cut your product line by as much at 50%.B) You expand your product line to service all customers.
The correct answer is A, you cut your product line by as much as 50%. This has proved itself again and again in the research. But perhaps one of the most impressive studies was on an internet retailer.
The retailer cut their worst selling products which ended up being 54% of their products across 42 separate categories. The result was an average 11% increase in overall sales.
So the next time you find yourself baffled with how to increase sales and overwhelmed with products and variation – get to cutting. Focus your efforts, clean up your offerings and bump up your income.
In a related finding…
Doing less can actually help you win more, lose less and make more money.
The more you focus, focus, focus – and DO ONE THING great – the greater your success. A simple experiment conducted in California grocery stores proves it.
Customers were offered free tastes of 24 different flavors of jam. In another leg of the test only 6 flavors of jam were offered. When offered 24 flavors only 2% of those walking by the display made a purchase. When offered 6 flavors 12% bought. That is a 600% increase!
The conclusion is clear – by offering less options – you’re seen as an expert and you increase your odds of success.
The same is true in your career – when you develop a deep expertise in an area then your boss will see you as more valuable. and you will win more, lose less and make more money.
You can improve your problem-solving ability even by taking a very short break.
A study reported in the Creativity Research journal found that when you’re stuck – stepping back from the problem – escaping if you would from the challenge JUMP STARTS your cranium.
In the study 104 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to five groups. They were then told to compute the area of two geometric figures found in a complex drawing called an insight puzzle.
As soon as they came to an impasse each group was given one of the three break lengths (long, short, and none). They were also given one of two levels of activity (demanding or non-demanding tasks).
The results clearly showed that any break improved their problem solving ability.
Why? Oftentimes when people try to solve a complex problem they make false assumptions that they can’t mentally release. Taking even a short break releases their mind. It lets them apply a new organizing assumption that leads to a better solution.
Numbers are Your Friend when Innovating
Years ago at Procter & Gamble my team and I were trying to sort out what to do after having just gotten some horrible product testing results. Tim Feely, who I believe was a Product Development Director at the time, stopped into the meeting and told us, “Numbers are your friend when innovating.”
At that moment the numbers on the pages in front of me didn’t seem like a very friendly friend. Tim explained that having a solid failure was a gift to us – as it made it clear that what we were doing was not working. It was time to change and to change significantly.
Tim’s comment has stuck with me for over 40 years :). I remembered it last week when a team was stressing that they didn’t have time to get their innovation idea ready to go out with a test that was scheduled. They were afraid they’d fail. My response was to paraphrase Tim, “Numbers are your friend – win or lose we will be smarter than we are now. My vote is to SHIP.” Note – the idea shipped – setting a record for uniqueness and for purchase. Well – that was a record high for uniqueness and a record low for purchase interest. And from that the team began to pursue another cycle of learning.
The “Numbers” associated with innovation include:
Customer research results on your idea, product/service or non-profit program
Forecasts for sales, profits, fundraising, cost savings
Forecasts for investment required for production or marketing
As I wrote about last week, these numbers are the key to you being able to generate “pull” for your innovation from investors, management and other stakeholders.
NUMBERS transform your idea from an “ABSTRACTION” into a TANGIBLE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY.
If you don’t know how to do the math GET HELP. Find a numbers person you trust to collaborate with.
3 secrets to Getting Investors to Invest in Your Idea
To create, communicate and commercialize an innovation requires lots of money. The money can come from your existing company, from outside investors or from your own savings. Note – when it’s from your own savings it’s not uncommon for that to not be fully your decision – you often have a spouse or partner who has a financial and emotional stake in you investing your money.
I’ve spent over 40 years selling companies, outside investors, family and friends on investing in ideas that I’ve created or helped create. I’ve sold multi-national corporations, small companies, non-profits and even governments on investing in my ideas.
From this I’ve learned THREE SECRETS that I believe are nearly fool proof.
MAKE IT REAL: Step one is to make your idea real. By this I mean you MUST craft two prototypes:Concept Prototype: This is ideally one piece of paper that presents your idea in the way you would show it to a possible customer. When you don’t have the actual innovation use illustrations to help potential investors see your idea as you envision it.Functional Prototype: This is a works like demonstration of the “magic” that is your innovation. It doesn’t matter how ugly it is – it just needs to help potential investors see, feel and experience the WOW you envision.
GET THE NUMBERS: If you want investors to invest you MUST have the numbers. Numbers include: 1) Customer Research on your prototypes, 2) Sales & Cost forecasts and 3) R&D, Production and Marketing investment needs. NO MATH = NO PROJECT this is what I tell inventors inside and outside of companies.
PROTECT YOUR INVENTION: Define in writing how you can protect yourself from being copied. Investors like to “own” something – and know that no one else owns anything close to it. The easiest way to protect your invention is to file a patent. You can also use trade secrets, specialized supply chain or in some cases trademarks.
When you can make your innovation real with prototypes, share your math and your proprietary protection then you have what you need to get investors to write you a check to support your innovation. In my personal experience over the years this process works both inside corporations and with outside investors.
Confront Reality & Build a Plan to De-Risk your Innovation Project!
Using innovation to grow sales and profits is an accepted business concept.
Actually taking action on innovations – especially big idea innovations – is scary for many.
The Eureka! Ranch team has developed a new PROJECT P&L tool for helping innovators build support and confidence among leadership, investors and other stake holders.
I’ve learned over the years that the P&L statement for innovation projects is the key to building support. It’s the place where all of your assumptions about sales, profits and return on investment come together on one piece of paper.
Sadly, many innovators have not been taught how to use their PROJECT P&L as an innovation acceleration tool.
With PROJECT P&L the Eureka! Ranch team helps you do risk adjusted math on AN EXISTING INNOVATION PROJECT. Having identified the three highest risk / variance areas they then help you craft a plan to de-risk these areas. The bottom line is a reduction of risk of failure by up to 80%.
Risk is quantified through measurement of the variance around your estimates. Some estimates associated with your PROJECT P&L will be relatively firm – with little standard deviation. Others, will have very large variance. The areas with high variance are the ones that are most likely to cause you to fail.
You can do this yourself – by simply estimating best case, worst case and best guess and using a spreadsheet to model that impact of the uncertainty inherent in your P&L on your odds of success.
Alternatively – you can use the TrailBlazer Innovation Project Software developed by the Eureka! Ranch team. It’s a collection of easy to use tools that help you quantify the risk associated with forecasting inputs. Your quantified inputs are then used to forecast sales, cost and profit using a state of the art “Market Simulation” system. It allows you to do a “virtual introduction” of your innovation into the marketplace some 10,000 times. The PROJECT P&L report predicts five years of trial, repeat and diffusion of your innovation into the marketplace. It also models the uncertainty associated with your estimates of cost and profitability.
The first couple of PROJECT P&L assessments are done by the Ranch team working with your team. In time, your staff becomes trained to run them on all projects.
The bottom line result is nothing short of amazing. You decrease your project risk AND build confidence among your stakeholders.
To learn more about how the Eureka! Ranch can help reach out to Maggie Nichols at Maggie@EurekaRanch.com
How Leadership can Learn to TRUST their Teams
After 48 years of innovating and 33 years of consulting – I believe that the ROOT CAUSE of a lack of innovation at most companies is the lack of TRUST that leaders have in the ability of their teams to innovate successfully.
This lack of trust sets off a chain reaction of bad behaviors…
Because they don’t trust their teams can execute big ideas – leadership sets small goals.
Setting small goals for innovation results in changes without the WOW factor needed to be successful
When senior leaders see that they are failing on what seem like easy ideas – they lose more confidence.
Eventually – a “guru” is brought in to create big ideas – with fancy design ideas & marketing smoke.
Not being connected to the reality of how to actually develop and deliver – the ideas soon fail.
Management – having failed with little ideas & guru ideas – gives up – and resorts to using cost cutting to drive growth.
This strategy works for a short time – but soon sees diminishing returns.
Leadership is replaced and the cycle repeats
And it all started because the Leader didn’t TRUST in the ability of the company teams to innovate.
THE GOOD NEWS IS –
The people can innovate. The people have big ideas. The people can turn those big ideas into reality.
They just need support and structures to help them focus their energy more successfully.
Under the leadership of CEO Maggie Nichols the Eureka! Ranch team is using Eureka! Inventing projects to build leadership TRUST. The Ranch experts – work side by side with employees. They show by doing – teaching, inventing and driving out risk though rapid quantitative research.
With this success – leadership sees a pathway to winning with innovation. Leadership sets project missions that are more challenging – and that deliver higher sales and profits.
To make the process sustainable – the Ranch team provides Innovation Engineering courses and software tools. Soon a new mindset develops where employees, managers and leadership believe – really believe that they can win with innovation.
WHAT IS EUREKA! INVENTING?
Use that button below to learn more about how Eureka! Ranch, CEO, Maggie Nichols and the team at the Ranch help companies win with innovation every single day through Eureka! Inventing projects!