Recently I was again fortunate to serve as an early-level judge for a collegiate “shark-tank” event.  The group of young entrepreneurs had five minutes to begin “Pitching” An IDEA to my small group of judges and hopefully be picked to advance to the next round.  The business-building concepts they shared were representative of both the private and public sectors…and were clearly high-value to each person delivering the “please-select-me” messages!

Was the experience fun and professionally encouraging…YES!  But in a progressive kind of way it took me back to another career entrepreneurship time that brought about the development of an:  IDEAS Guidebook.  And just to share a memory…here’s one of the first components in the Guidebook:

“One of the first steps in making your IDEA come to life is to take yourself through an intense “Shark Tank moment.  This means that like the contestants in the TV show, you need to ask yourself very direct questions about your IDEA:

• What do you want to build?
• What problem do you want to solve?
• Where would it be located?
• Who would produce it?
• Why would people use/buy it?
• Is it a hobby or a business?
• Do you want to make money or save the world?
• Have others done/built it before?
• Who would be your best partner…or your competition?

Some or all of these questions need to be addressed and thought through before moving forward with your IDEA.

By spending early time discovering the answers to the What Do YOU/WE Want? questions in this IDEAS Guidebook, you will find others much more willing to listen and consider.  (Remember those two words!  Listen and Consider!)”

I guess as I listened to each pitch…I was wishing that if I had them in an entrepreneurship class that I would re-stress the WHAT DO YOU/WE WANT? questions over and over to all of them.  Now, I am not saying they did a poor job on their pitches.  Rather I believe their ideas would have greater strength and business-building potential if they might have stayed simple on WHAT DO YOU/WE WANT? customer-based priorities.

Bottomline:  “Pitching” An IDEA! should be somehow common-place in all workplaces.  It doesn’t need to be a formalized shark tank event…but if you find yourself “Pitching” An IDEA!…concentrate on points that will cause everyone to LISTEN and CONSIDER.

Coming up with new, non-traditional and/or innovative ideas… has never been a problem in my professional world. However, when the time came and I was trying to figure out the best and most promising way to get the concept moving… very often I “hit” a roadblock. And I am not talking about money or even staffing… rather it was a matter of surrounding myself with common-minded people anxious to do something new.

So with that thought in mind, I want to toss out a solid, fun progress TRIPLE III TIME action: Try “Crowdsourcing” Your Idea. And just to get everyone on the same page… the definition of Crowdsourcing is:

“The practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the internet.”  (Oxford Dictionary)

Today, Crowdsourcing your ideas is not just an imagination-spreading way of garnering support for your project/plan, but an additional way of “testing” its support-ability in the public or private business sectors.

While in my Inspiring Innovations consultant role, I have spent additional customer time stressing that no one achieves progress alone… even during the project development stage.  Idea-blending, market-targeting and customer-attracting are all Crowdsourcing activities that can make or break your new hopeful creation.  Whether in-person or online, by Crowdsourcing your idea, the potential for gaining extra, unique, manageable information as you move forward will have real high-value impact.

Bottomline:  If you have not considered it before:  Try “Crowdsourcing” Your Idea.  Or if you have only tried it on a small scale… give it a larger try!  With the complexity of today’s product/service markets… having a group of interested, caring minds willing to contribute… is a great opportunity you don’t want to pass up.

Last week our TRIPLE III TIME message was all about:  Quality Control – The Little Things Matter.  In it I talked about a TOP 10 list of very basic, common sense and professional courtesy driven actions… that if employed regularly, would heighten personal and organizational quality outputs.  Ultimately, it was/is my hope that if appropriately applied… all aspects of one’s operation would improve!

Now as a next step in professional positioning and growth… I want everyone to think about:  Disruptive Innovation.

“Disruptive innovation, a concept developed by Clayton Christensen, describes a process where a simpler, cheaper, or more accessible product/service starts in a small or new market, eventually moves upmarket, and displaces established competitors.  It typically targets underserved customers and makes a formerly complicated or expensive product affordable for a broader audience.  This process leads to a new market and value network that ultimately disrupts an existing one.”  (Google-AI)

Consider the product you produce or the service you provide.  Has it been impacted by Disruptive Innovation?  Consider the job search arena. Has Indeed, Trillium, Kelly Services, and Monster changed the government funded employment services system?

Has simple cost and convenience altered how citizens search and find new jobs?  This example of Disruptive Innovation is just a means of getting your professional development attention and in some way energizes a little creativity in your worlds-of-work.

Disruptive Innovation most often asks you to first return to the service/product problem you are trying to solve for your customers.  Can you break it into smaller pieces to ease understandability?  Could you make it easier to access…with or without technology?  Is it as customer-friendly as it can be…or has high-tech made it a “distant-reach” for your customers?  Does your service/product methodology ask customers (and even staff) to go too far too fast??

Finally, understand that Disruptive Innovation does NOT tell you how to do what you do differently.  Rather it just asks that you THINK DIFFERENTLY to maybe start new initiatives aimed at solving old problems in smaller, cheaper, simpler or in more effective and efficient customer service ways.

Hopefully this message helps with customers lost… customers missed…and new customer connections!

First, I want to be clear that I have not shared anyone’s email as complete a TRIPLE III TIME message before…only quotes and/or paragraphs.  However as you will read this email message from a very good friend, you will realize it is a unique testimonial to “my way of life”!  Therefore, for professional confidentiality sake and sharing it with total word-for-word accuracy… I have made no changes to JG’s excellent document! 

I feel privileged and proud to share this with you: 

Rural Michigan: The Next Great Frontier for Entrepreneurs  

 While the world races toward urban tech hubs, I see a different kind of goldmine, rural Michigan. 

 Not in the form of apps or algorithms, but in community-rooted entrepreneurship, in people with grit, creativity, and deep ties to their land and neighbors. 

 Rural Michigan is brimming with untapped potential: 

🌾 Family farms ready to diversify. 

🏪 Main Street businesses needing new energy. 

📦 Supply chain gaps waiting to be filled. 

📡 Tech deserts begging for innovative infrastructure. 

And above all, young people hungry to create, not just consume. 

 What if we stopped viewing rural communities as places to escape from, and instead saw them as launchpads for new venture creation? 

 What if we: 

1️⃣ Invested in broadband AND business incubators? 

2️⃣ Built entrepreneurship high school pathways in rural districts? 

3️⃣ Incentivized rural innovation zones, not just urban ones? 

4️⃣ Put real capital in the hands of rural founders, especially women, veterans, and first-gen students? 

 Entrepreneurship isn’t just for Silicon Valley. It’s for rural towns across Michigan! It’s for people with vision, values, and roots. 

 Michigan’s future will be brighter when we stop treating rural as a challenge, and start treating it as a competitive advantage. 

 Let’s grow the economy from the ground up. 

Literally.  

“Entrepreneurship is a way of life.” 

Have you ever asked GOOGLE for an Artificial Intelligence definition of an engineer?  If not, here is what you will find:

“An engineer is a person who uses their knowledge of science and math to design, build, and maintain machines, structures, and systems to solve problems and improve our lives.  They apply scientific principles and creativity to develop solutions for various challenges!”

So as we consider the title of this week’s TRIPLE III TIME message:  IDEA Generating Engineers and our AI definition, consider WHO would you think qualifies within your network of professionals as a true IDEA Generating Engineer??

I feel every professional needs to take part in this unique exercise to better understand who is someone you look to for new concepts and/or professional growth.  But also to take stock of those who may add little or no value to who you are and your potential innovative capacities.

Does that make sense?

When I consider IDEA Generating Engineers in my network… I think about impacting colleagues from various professional sectors.  Education, public services, manufacturing, entertainment, personal counseling, partnership building, entrepreneurship, health care… and more.  Each offers a different form of knowledge, experience and IDEAS specifically generated from their area of expertise.  The initial benefit for me that evolves from this network of  IDEA Generating Engineers is not only a consistent input of creativity… but also a level of confidence that every new concept has realistic potential!

So do you have your list of IDEA Generating Engineers yet??

People have heard me say:  “I like being with and involved… with MY OWN KIND!”  IDEA Generating Engineers… by AI definition are MY OWN KIND.  Give this TRIPLE III TIME message a little extra thought and let me know what you come up with.

This week I had the privilege and honor to be a judge at an annual wonderful “shark-tank” event!  More than fifty (50) teams of primarily college students had the unique opportunity to “PITCH” their new business/product/service ideas to a panel of judges for a short five (5) minutes.  Each team’s goal was to obtain a spot for the next round of PITCH competition and perhaps win investor support including significant money awards.  The experience for me every year is new, fun, encouraging and professional network expanding.

So as I was driving both to and from the event…I found myself thinking about what special idea/concept would I PITCH today if given the chance?  Where would I start?  What problem needs a solution or what’s missing at home or at work to make something better?  Would I try to improve a current product or service…or would I create something totally new and different?  Other questions that entered my mind included:

• What could I PITCH that wouldn’t cost a ton of money?
• Could I create a new techno-APP that GOOGLE would buy from me?
• How could I improve the current products/services I currently provide?
• Who could I partner with to strategize together on building something special?
• What could I create that currently would have very little competition in the marketplace?

(A great way to spend extended road time!)

I know I have said it before but I believe everyone…yes EVERYONE has an innovator, creationist gene/bone inside of them.  And truly the only one that can (and must) exercise that gene/bone…is YOU!

This week’s TRIPLE III TIME message:  “The PITCH of a Lifetime!” is intended to re-ignite the creative potential “sleeping” inside of you.  Think about being in front of a group of shark tank judges…with some dollars to award and you need “The PITCH of a Lifetime!”

What would you propose??

Welcome to the first week of the new year 2024! Whether you traditionally make New Year resolutions and/or formulate a plan to do a whole bunch of things better…be totally aware that no matter what…things are and will continue to change all around you everyday!!

With this fact in mind, I want everyone to think about this IDEAL quote as a strong, continuous priority for our new year.

“Expand the way you think about the future…and it could also help you create better work in the present.” (Tom May, Great TED Talks: Creativity)

Please reread (at least twice) and grasp all of the importance of each word in this quote. There are so many innovation-driving factors that can and should be initiated based on the directives that can be drawn from Mr. May’s words.

Think about it!

If you are making a strategic plan for the next 5 years…why not try some of your 5 year ideas tomorrow?? Or if you are putting together a teaching plan for the next semester/term…don’t wait until the last weeks of the class to exercise creativity with the students. Or if you’re a leader/manager/advisor for a group of people…will you start the year by initiating changes in their workplace with minimal issues…or challenge them NOW with futuristic assignments for what could be?

Bottomline: INNOVATION & CREATIVITY will be a more regular TRIPLE III TIME topic focus in 2024. Not just because it is my life-long area of interest…but equally because it is a CHANGE MANAGEMENT TOOL…which can make all tomorrows something to look forward to.