I Am A Servant 

I am the Chief Visionary Officer, CVO of a full service innovation agency. Synergy Playgrounds (SP) is a boundryless place for wonder, discovery, vision and radical innovation. I am a Husband, and I am an adoring father of three: Zachary (5), Stryker (2) and Radical (.1). I am a citizen, and I am a servant.

I am  candidly writing you today based on the belief that we share a a principal centered vision [http://www.synergy-playgrounds.com/vision.html] w/ very different missions [http://www.synergy-playgrounds.com/vision/sp-mission.html], and I am absolutely convinced that our contributions will have an incredibly profound impact in helping you realize your vison for the United State of America. Because that's what we do...  Whether or not people, brands and organizations have vision, we help them realize it in such convincing fashion that it inspires and ignites... bc it serves our mission and it gets us another step closer to SPs' vision, a vision that is far bigger than us. With that said, we need you too.

We are a small group of young men and women with child-like wonder and boundryless belief in human ability bc we have a special gift: insight. We are between 22 and 38 years of age. We are multilingual, proficient in speaking generation AARP, generation YouTube and very proficient in speaking, and writing the language that has micro-cosmically globalized the growing longtail of economics: the internet. We also speak the language that stops the de-evolution of creativity so that we can unleash innovation as a way of life that leads to human synergy.

The Wonder Way Of Life

"I am a kid a heart. Are yoiu a kid a heart? I remember what it was like to be a kid. I remember that we could be completely care free. So care free that it seemed like we could just wonder away in a world of boundryless possibilities. It was a world full of potential and possibility, limitless by every stretch of the imagination. It was a world where as long as we could wonder it, we could get lost in it. We could go anywhere, we could be anything, we could do anything...

When I was a kid, I could conquer the world. I really could, because I could do anything! Absolutely anything! Well... ....at least I thought, I believed that I really could do anything! I believed it with all my heart and soul. In fact, now that I think about it...  I may have believed in myself more as a kid, than I do as an adult. Those were the days." The secret is that "There is still a 6 yr old inside of all of us, still undaunted, and just dying to come out and play" - Granville Toogood

A Must Read: http://www.synergy-playgrounds.com/wonder.html

A Story About The Global Economy

SP offers a robust folio of powerful product and service solutions at no cost to the business or the brand. We are a pay for performance organization (w/ the execption of optoin c.) that is directly tied to "new" revenue as a result of trackable SP initiatives. Why am I sharing??? Because we've helped 100% of our clients to either launch a new business, or progressively strengthen their current one. And, because 95% of our clients are from foreign countries and Synergy Playgrounds is based in Houston, Texas.

Our website gets translated in 32 languages which makes it easy for foreign interests to find... if they're looking.

While foreign interests, on the most micro levels appear to be engaged in looking forward (visioning) and acting (missioning), U.S. interests appear to be engaged in looking at YouTube, Itunes and Facebook (visionless) and doing nothing (or very little) to inform, infuse and ingnite human engin.uity. This may be the begining of de-evolution in America unless we do something about it.  

While the laws that govern human behavior have dramatically changed in the past decade, the laws that govern the dynamics of the global economy have not! The wealth of the world is not just vanishing before us, as some would suggest. The wealth of the world is being re-distributed. Translation: wealth is being taken away from the U.S., thus indirectly impacting the foreign economies that depend on the U.S. So what's really going on? We believe that it has very little to do with macro economic rhetoric and the clutter of the conventional wisdom that comes with it.

The Longtail Is Far More Influential Than The Macro Economic Explanation

SP thinks that it has a lot to do with the cummulative effects of microcosmic economics - the longtail of the global economy is getting longer and stronger everyday, and it's happening outside of the U.S. We believe that conventionalists have been blinded by it bc they can't see nor touch it. They can't see it, bc it's too small. They can't touch it, bc they can't wrap their minds or their arms around it. They just can't get it... unless they learn to speak the new geek of innovation: generation YouTube, generation Virtual Mart, generation Open Source (e.g. Joomla), generation global business by the 17 year old who offices out of an internet cafe in Sol.

As foreign affairs have out educated us for several years, we know that we can expect them to continue to out-innovate, out-manuever and out-smart us for generations...  unless we can first understand what's going on, accept accountability then, and only then, lead - do something different about it. And, we believe that something is to make life meaningful again, and we have a proprietary process that shows us the way to discovery.

You see, Joe The Plumber thinks he knows what's going on in the car industry and in the housing market. Why shouldn't he? Everyone talks and walks like they know what's up, and... it's an easy explanation. A room of 10 subject matter experts have 8 different opinions that are really all the same: that is, lacking insight. Why can't Joe The Plumber Or You, Or I just say these 3 little words:

"I DON'T KNOW"

Proof 

Because if we can acknowledge that we don't know instead of attempting to explain without sound logic, we might just discover dialogue that addresses the real root of the issue. And, the reason why we can't say "I Don't Know" is bc we've programmed our culture to believe that there is a right answer, and it should be logical. Oh, by the way, the answer is also needed 5 minutes ago. SP believes that our nation is cultivating the de-evolution of creativity, thus in turn limiting the ability to believe in oneself and in the potential of outside world - faith. Wonder is the answer [please read the section on wonder here: http://www.synergy-playgrounds.com/wonder.html]

Why aren't we talking more about the 17 yr old in Sol, Korea whom is single handedly re-distributing wealth on a global scale, one hand at a time. One person at a time in a world of >7[B] people. Global businesses with Virtual Carts made on brilliant open source software platforms like Joomla (free) and a lot of ingenuity, costs just pennies to go to market and become effective. It's easy to see why 14 out of every 15 'new' global, web-based businesses is a foreign affair. And, when they see how easy it is to be radically effective, they proceed to mass produce their model. We know for a fact, that there are several kids that have started their global businesses selling shoes, watches, websites or whatever, with just access to an internet cafe and a couple of dollars. That one business turns into 50 within the space of a couple of years.

Longtail Philosophy 

If Confusious was right: the journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step and continues with the next, then this growing longtail, that's truly awe inspiring is really a story of human perserverence and progression. What is it that executive types say about what competition does in the market place? Something like, it forces brands and organizations to re-think, re-invent and re-imagine where tomorrow is going to be, and the oh-so-important action of getting there.

The introduction of the internet  enabled collaboration and learning, and continues to inspire dreams (vision) and action (mission).  The marketplace is no longer a market, it is a person. It is no longer big auto, or big oil, or pharma or whatever!! In the 21st century, it's the individual - one by one.

This foreign affair is cultivating ingenuity as a way of life. With each generation they will become stronger, better, faster and so impressive, that they'll do what we did. They'll progess with such success that in 10 or 50 years they'll look back, marvel at what they created, they'll become obsessed with material possesions and they'll stop looking forward. They'll de-evolve the inginuity, the creativity that got them there. Just like we have done.

One Of Several Open Minded Solutions

Please be sure to read our ideology at [http://www.synergy-playgrounds.com/ideology.html] to learn more about the fundamental issues that we believe we can help with. We have dozens of fundamental methods of elliciting original thought. In the short-term, Synergy Playgrounds could offer 'no cost' product and service solutions (see our financial options here: http://www.synergy-playgrounds.com/en/synergy-playgrounds/psa.html) to people, baby brands and small businesses right here, in the US. Long-term, we'd like to propose a national holiday for wonder, and we have several guides to everday wonder and everyday discovery. We'd like to discuss education cirriculum that cultivates a boundryless place for wonder, discovery, vision and radical innovation.

I Am A Servant 

We need principal centered, innovative leadership to lead the charge towards your vision for the United States of America. We can help. Can we meet next Tuesday from 12 - 2pm?

Welcome to radically different. We design, develop and destroy the clutter of tradional thinking so that we can show and share in a discovery process that unleashes boundrylessness for every person. A discovery process that offers such insight, that we get to see into the world of the wildly important. Because we live and play in a world that's so obsessed with speed and luxury goods, that we've de-evolved the very attributes that created them. Attributes like: leadership, imagination, creativity, vision, innovation, insight, purpose... the very attributes that drive victory for the wildly important goals for people, brands & organisations.

Synergy Playgrounds {SP} is a boundryless place for wonder, discovery, vision and radical innovation.

Because we live and play in a world that demands constant innovation in self and in society (professional sports, luxury brands, any organisation) to make a run at the wildly important victory.

And since we cant assume "what worked yesterday will work tomorrow" we need to build and bake agility into every energy, every step of every stage so that we out-innovate, out-maneuver and out-brand the competition as a way of life.

Because the virtuous qualities that lead to leadership and everyday innovation are not a function of position, nor disposition, they are a function of free will.  

Bc brand remarkability doesn't come from an outside, best of breed agency. It comes from within. 

That's why we aim to show and share in a discovery process that unleashes such synergy in people, brands and organizations that it amplifies and redefines value for all stakeholders...

Our pieces on continuing brand eduction are designed to offer a little insight.

Bc insight has to come before action

Einstein Quote the problems

The action is to draw the very building blocks that creates synergy directly into the brand-building process

you’ll get to grip the gravity of a new paradigm with a little Insight and a lot of Guidance.

You'll learn how to inspire the kind of child-like wonder that leads to discovery of boundrylessness, vision, purpose and passion.

Boundrylessness that opens the eyes, that opens the mind, that opens the heart and soul to discover vision that truly matters bc it’s what makes life worth living.

You will learn how to develop powerful market positions, become change agents, align the brand with business strategy, and build a culture of innovation. You will learn how to become a synergy playground.

Question:

why do we care?

Answer:

it's our mission: (display full mission)

Question:

why is that our mission?

Answer:

bc it is the journey that will lead us to our Vision (display full vision)

[Intro: Vision]

We aim to live such a mission bc it is what continually connects and reconnects us to the purpose and the passion that written into the hearts, minds and paradigms of our people.

we aim to live such a mission bc it guides our every energy, every step at every stage of the journey towards one vision. One dream.

Our vision at SP is to cultivate a loving, nurturing playground-like place for life-long wonder, everyday discovery, deep understanding and continual growth that leads to boundryless thinking and creative innovation in self, in society, in synergy.

To develop cultures of true purpose, cultures with clarity, cultures that transcend generations with such fillment that the distinction between work and play becomes immeasurble. 

To create radical innovation with such convincing value for all stakeholders (people, brands, organizations) that SP gets to choose with whom we make little distinction between work and play with.

{Brand Infrastructure - Part 1: Insight} 

What is a Brand?

Lets start with a handful of things that a brand is not.

A brand is not a logo.

(show just one picture of a famous brand)

A brand is not an identity.

(show graphic with a brand identity with a big "X" over it)

A brand is neither a product nor a service.

(show image of a product or service)

So, what exactly is a brand?

A brand is a perception, attitude or judgment or character.

It is a persons gut feeling about another person, place (organisation) or thing (product or service).

It is a persons gut feeling bc brands are defined by individuals. Not, companies, markets or publics.

It's a gut feeling bc people are emotional, intuitive beings.

In other words, a brand is not what you say it is...

It's what they say it is!

Why is the brand/ branding so important?

• People have too little time, and too many choices.

• Most offerings look, feel, smell and taste the same. 

• We tend to base our buying choices on trust... what we can believe in. 

Trust

T=r + d (trust, reliability, delight)

• trust comes from meeting and beating customer expectations.

Do you think a brand have a $ value?

Can it afford not to?

Prediction:

Brand will become the most powerful strategic tool since...

Correction(strikethrough):

Brand is the most powerful strategic tool

Bc. people believe people more than they believe brands...

In an age of me-too products and instant communication, keeping up with the competition isn’t a winning strategy.

Today you have to out-position, out-maneuver, and out-design them.

Discover radical differentiation—the number one strategy of high-performance brands.

The new rule? When everybody zigs, zag. 

Build your brand from the inside out. Build the character of your brand.

Because first we have to know all the rules of the brand... before we can break them (strike through) reinvent them... much less live them!

Problem: in most organisations strategy

                                                        is separted from creativity by a wide gap.

On one side of the gap is Strategic Thinkers...                      On the other side of the gap is Creative Thinkers....

-analytical                 - intuitive

-logical                        -emotional

-linear                             -spacial

-numerical                                    -visual

-verbal                               -physical

Does the left brain know what the right brain is doing?

When both sides work together, you can create synergy in a brand.

1 + 1 = 11

Brand Synergy happens when people believe that there is no ... any product, service or org for which people believe there is no substitue

Any brand can have synergy.

Even Yours.

This is how it all starts:

With Wonder:

{Wonder opens the mind to a boundryless world of possibility. It brings the left side of the brain face to face with itself, thus realizing Boundrylessness = discovery of any vision. Any vision can be realized with the right journey. The journey, the mission needs to have to have focus, focus, focus... they need . Journey is Differentiate - Focus - Innovate - Collaborate - Validate - Cultivate}

Why does it all start with wonder?

1. Because Wonder opens the mind to a boundryless world of possibility.

It stretches the imagination and encourages the discovery and evolution of everything...

from any vision to the purpose and the passion that makes it come alive.

 
It is in our ability to wonder of the things that don’t yet exist that they can come to be; 

from the tangible things that make up the material world around us like plastic, penicillin and luxury brands 

to the intangible things that make up the boundryless world within us like passion, potential (worth) and imagination.

Because wonder encourages the evolution of any artists' folio through discovery.

From the discovery of things like questions and failures which brings about insight and innovation,

to the discovery of purpose and new paradigms which brings about truth and wisdom.

Because the truth is that an approach to everyday discovery is thrilling!

We get to see things for the first time, all the time. We get to discover things we didn't know existed and we get to re-discover things we thought were gone. 

When was the last time you saw something for the first time?

An approach to everyday discovery cultivates vision from the inside. It’s called insight

, and it gives us such clarity and ability in the moment of choice that it illuminates the path to boundryless vision.

vision is where you want to go, it is the destination. 

The vision is the dream, it is the one wildly important goal of any role: astronaut... father... company... brand... team... 

Our vision is to cultivate a loving, nurturing playground-like place for life-long wonder, everyday discovery, deep understanding and continual growth that leads to boundryless thinking and creative innovation in self, in society, in synergy. To develop cultures of true purpose, cultures with clarity, cultures that transcend generations with such fillment that the distinction between work and play becomes immeasurble.

To create radical innovation with such convincing value for all stakeholders (people, brands, organizations) that SP gets to choose with whom we make little distinction between work and play with. It's not two captains who take turns choosing players until everyone is assigned to one team or the other. It's new math (in edit).

"Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world!"

- Joel Arthur Barker

Discovering vision for a person, a brand, an organisation is discovering and re-discovering purpose and passion for the first time.

The process of getting to the vision becomes the mission. It is the journey.

The mission aims to guide every energy, every step at every stage of the journey towards one vision. 

The mission enables the clarity to connect these actions through a principle-centerd mission statement.

bc principles have the greatest impact on the way that we think.

Think of principles as an internal compass. 

The way that we think influences the way that we feel... and the way that we feel leads us to behavior eximplified in action.

The mission is the character of the brand. 

the mission continually connects and reconnects us to the purpose and the passion that gets written into hearts, minds and paradigms of people, thus cultivating convincing value and fulfillment in the free will to choose committent, devotion and loyalty. (in editing...) Sustainability.

13. Our mission is to inform, infuse and ignite positivity, possibility and purpose in the hearts, minds and paradigms of people that leads to conscious living. To inspire the kind of child-like wonder that leads to discovery of boundrylessness, vision, purpose and passion. Boundrylessness that opens the eyes, that opens the mind, that opens the heart and soul to discover vision that truly matters bc it’s what makes life worth living. To unleash creative synergies in people, brands and organizations that amplifies and redefines value for all stakeholders. To show and share that the virtuous qualities that lead to leadership and everyday innovation is not a function of position nor disposition, it is a function of free will.

To realize a collective vision that’s far bigger than us, aiming to profoundly make a difference and shape generations.

-- why is the mission so important

15. SP labs makes all sorts of patented kits that will possibly be used within organizations like Google, the U.S. Military and MIT that are proven to bring about boundrylessness, wonder, creativity, vision, mission and radical innovation so that the 10,000 X's greater effectiveness becomes within our reach. Products like the wonder lever, stretchy imagination kits and so on and so forth. SPs' ""Guide to Wonder" will be published Fall 2010 and SP is currently w working President Obama to declaire the first Friday of Feburary "National Wonder Day" as well as developing cirriculum for public school systems.

Future Courses:

• 1,000 Ways to Wonder

• synergy audits

• creative councils

• A Guide to Every Day Discovery

• A Guide to Discovering Visionary Vision

• Chief Branding Officer

• Hand Out The Compass

• Never Do The Same Thing... Once

•  

...because brands our built from the inside out             ....slick, super sick!

Differentiation.

FACT: our brain acts as a filter to protect us from too much information

We are hard wired to notice only what's different.

So be different.

The 3 most important words in differentiating your brand

Focus

Focus

Focus

Who are you? What do you do? Why does it matter?

Unless you have compelling answers to these questions, you need more focus.

The most common reasons for not having focus is:

1. loss of focus through greed - brand extensions

2. never had focus through impatience - never developed strategic, differentiation in your brand to begin with.

Either way, if you don't have focus you may as well be selling a commodity.

Example:

  Focused - Porsche = Sports Car

  Unfocused - Porsche = Sports Car + SUVS?

Discipline # 2: Collaborate 1+1=11

Like building a cathedral, building a brand is a collaborative project

It takes a village, a culture to build a brand

What makes up a culture

How to organise brand collaboration. There are 3 ways:

1. The one stop shop - In-House

2. The Brand Agency - Best of Breeds

3. Integrated Marketing

bc the mathmatics of collaboration is nothing less than magic.

Discipline #3

Innovate

Execution, not strategy is where the rubber meets the road

Creativity is what gives brands their traction in the market place

Why do so mnay org have trouble w creativity

bc creativity is right brained and strategey is left brained

Creative thinking

Strategic thinking

mantra for innovators "zag when others zig"

how do you know when an idea is innovative

answer: when it scares the hell out of everyone

"If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it."  - Einstein

to begin w, the brand needs a Stand Out name

distinct, brevity, appropriate, easy spelling and pron, likability/fun, extandability, protectability

a great name deserves great graphics

News Flash -- logos are dead, long live icons and avatars

{an icon is a symbol or a name that suggests a market position}

for products that sell at retail, the package is the best and last chance to make a sale

if you communicate w customers online, your website needs to follow a sequence. one that supplies users with only the information that they need instead of trying to squeeze everything on to the homepage like this slide, nad making the users do all hte work, which will undoubtly invite them to leave, when all you really had to do was ask yourself this simple question:

does our website look fat in this dress?

too many websites are bloated with irrelevent information

Discipline 4

{validation means bringing the audience into the creative process}

the old communication model was a monologue

the new communication modle is a dialogue

if your audience can't verbalize the concept, you've failed to communicate it.

validation through: distinct, emotional, memorable, deapth of meaning

discipline #5

cultivate

business is a process, not an entity

a living brand is a pattern of behavior, not a stylistic veneer.

brands are like people

bc people can change their clothes without changing their characters

brands are like people

bc brands are made up of people

success brands are controlled/cultivated via successful characters of a brand

so lets say you've done all 5 disciplines (differentiate, )

you've added the left brain to the right brain

you've zigged when the competition has zaged

you've .....

now what?

it's time to pass out the compass

what is the compass

• brand orientation

• continuing brand education courses

• brand audits

• brand summits

• strategey audits

• brand manuals

• innovation clinics

• creative councils

• quarterly critiqus

• teamwork training

• imagination kits

• creativity workshops

•  

cointinuiting brand education

it is this slidewhos

the more distributed a brand becmes, ....

                                                                 ............the stronger its management needs to be.

what your company needs is a cheif branding officer

the cbo forms a human bridge between logic and magic, strategy and design

you build a sustainable, competitive advantage

Take yourself back to when you were a kid..... 

[About SP: Building Brands From the Inside Out]

Here's to possibility.

"Because we see the  world different... we see the world for all its wonder. So we serve too. Beside one another and beside you, we serve a purpose (mission) to show and share the world for all its worth. Because there's so much in life to be passionate about. Pick your passion, make little distinction between work & play, and give meaning to every moment in life because it's what makes life worth living! It's what inspires people to go for it...  to dream big...  to live...  to laugh...  to love...  to leave a legacy that transcends generations." 

So it is our mission to inform, infuse and ignite positivity, possibility and purpose in the hearts, minds and paradigms of people that leads to conscious living. To inspire the kind of child-like wonder that leads to discovery of boundrylessness, vision, purpose and passion. Boundrylessness that opens the eyes, that opens the mind, that opens the heart and soul to discover vision that truly matters because it’s what makes life worth living. To unleash creative synergies in people, brands and organizations that amplifies and redefines value for all stakeholders. To show and share that the virtuous qualities that lead to leadership and everyday innovation is not a function of position nor disposition, it is a function of free will.

So here's to our governing values... our core values. 

To honor, to gallentry, to valor... long may it live. Here's to doing the right thing, to giving a dam. Here's to the straight talkers, who give their word and keep it. Here's to freedom, wherever you find it, and knowing the true meaning of wealth. Here's to the brave among us. Here's to a code of behavior (attitude) that set certain men apart from all others. Here's to us...

Here's to a culture that dedicated to a higher pupose... to revealing the worth of this world's wonder...

Because when wonder inspires purpose, passion and possibility, it becomes your wonderland. Our wonderland is to offer a boundryless place for wonder, discovery and visionary value that inspires people to go for it... to dream big... to live... to laugh... to love... to leave a legacy that transcends generations.

To realize a collective vision that’s far bigger than us, aiming to profoundly make a difference and shape generations. {Hint: The mission is where the action takes place. Radical innovation happens here.}

Attitute - The potential for everything happens in the space that's created between stimulus and response. This space offers the most powerful force in the universe... "choice." This is what drives the internal tipping point in people that ultimately determines ability in almost every capacity. Mavens, managers, mentors, fathers, friends...  We are exactly the person that we choose to become, and the single most important character attribute that determines choice is attitude.

It's attitude that shapes how we choose to act in the steps before, during and after those things that are within and beyond our control. It's in attitude that we choose to be pathcreators (innovators), pathfinders and path accepters. 

It's in attitude that we choose to live principles that give us the inward moral sense of what is what is right and what is wrong and what is possible. We are exactly ther person that we choose to become.

Growth.

Candor.

Focus -  Discipline. Boundrylessness. Passion. Discover. Faith.

{ideology • wonder • discovery • vision • radical innovation}