Steve Harvill on LinkedIn: Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world… (2025)

“In the airport, luggage-laden people rush hither and yon through endless corridors, like souls to each of whom the devil has furnished a different, inaccurate map of the escape route from hell.”Ursula K LeGuinLet’s say you have a business where over 1/3 of your customers hate doing business with you.Let’s say, in response to that knowledge ,you decide to reduce services and add fee’s to nickel and dime (if you consider $100 nickels and dimes) you to death.All of this even though over 20% of the time the business can’t fulfill its basic service promise. You had 26,000 formal complaints that were filed in the first 5 months of 2023. Welcome to the airline industry.Before I continue, I must declare that I have done work with two of the major airlines, just so you know.The event of flying is just about as bad a customer experience as you can have.It’s not just the airlines, but also the airport·Airport traffic·Parking·Baggage stuff·Getting through security.·Airport food prices·Boarding process·Delayed or cancelled flights·Leg room – I didn’t realize that recent evolutionary changes have made us smaller people.Pretty impressive list of headaches.Human interaction at the airport can rapidly devolve into a real The Lord of the Fly’s scene.It has become so bad that through technology we have tried to mitigate human interaction.Scan my ticket and don’t look me in the eye.There are 19,000 airports in the US alone, generating 45,000 flights a day, servicing 2.9 million flyers.It is a HUGE model to manage with a constant stream of problems.Weather, mechanical and personnel issues are creating management challenges every minute.I get it.Heck, I’ve been doing it for over 50 years.I can even remember when you got cloth napkins, tiny little glass salt and pepper shakers and a real meal in 1stClass.There is a good side.You get places faster (most of the time) than any other form of transportation.There are .01 injuries per 100 million passenger miles and water is still basically free.Gotta go, my flight is boarding – only 30 minutes late!

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To see earth as it truly is , small blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together – brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold – brothers who know they are truly brothers.Archibald MacLeishIt was extraordinary. Not so long ago in the scheme of things, in the late afternoon onJuly 20, 1969 two men landed, what was really an experimental aircraft in a shallow crater with a romantic name, The Sea of Tranquility.The Eagle landed and two humans stepped foot on another heavenly body.Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent 21 ½ hours on the moon.They made real, what had been only a mythological voyage.The challenge was made by President Kennedy in 1961.What followed was a staggering commitment to the goal.Sending people to the moon AND bringing them back was a “clear, crisp goal with a specific destination and deadline”.This was followed by a doubling of the NASA workforce and a 4x increase in the contractors working on all the science and engineering needed to make such a far-reaching goal a reality.Armstrong and Aldrin brought back 47 ½ pounds of moon rocks.Rocks from another place, a place no one had ever been.Those rocks were 3 billion years old.Though the science was important, it was really so much more.We had accomplished what was perhaps the largest technological based project in history.Larger than the Panama Canal and the Manhattan project.Millions of people gathered around tiny black and white TV’s to witness this event, people who had arrived at their home in a covered wagon.It generated awe and wonder.It made people think anything was possible.It was an event that united not only Americans, but humans all over the world.So tonight gaze up.In clear skies you will see a full moon.Add a little wonder and see the location of a dream that came true.

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“If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.”Jimmy BuffettIn the city of Syracuse, on the Italian island of Sicily, around 200 BC, lived the father of mathematics, Archimedes.Archimedes was a master of geometry and engineering, using the work of Euclid to give birth to the idea of “leverage.”It’s an idea of minimum effort to get a maximum return.Take a lever, rest it on a pivot/fulcrum and you can lift a large amount of weight.This is the power of leverage.In 1977 the late singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett penned a little tune called Margaritaville, arguably the most profitable song in history and the pivot point for using the idea of leverage to build a billion dollar empire.Jimmy figured he would follow his fans.His music connected to a world of business ideas.He sang of the joy of a great cheeseburger.Hey, we can leverage that love with an ice-cold beer and build restaurants.We already have built in customers, parrotheads (Buffett fans).From that bond, a tie between the apparent overwhelming desire to feel the sand between your toes and a gentle breeze in the palm trees, you use leverage to create a brand – MARGARITAVILLE. There are Margaritaville clothes, tequila and beer, sport stadiums, hotels, retirement communities, even pickleball paddles.All of this is the LEVERAGE of the tropical escapism he sang and wrote about.From Archimedes to Jimmy Buffett may seem like a stretch, but its strangely similar.Knowing how selling points connect creates the kind of leverage that would make Archimedes smile.Don’t allow your successes to vanish into history.They are full of connections, of opportunity that might go unnoticed without a focus on LEVERAGE.

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“I have always stuck up for Western medicine. You can chew all the celery you want, but without antibiotics, three quarters of us would not be here.” - Hugh LaurieI don’t watch much network TV, usually just sports.But a quick trip with the TV remote will quickly make you aware of the mountain of maladies we are apparently suffering from.It seemed every commercial featured lots of dancing and singing (strangely, dancing and singing are never listed as a side effect) around the praise of a branded pharmaceutical product. Ever wonder where all the brand names come from?They sound like they were the result of a margarita fueled Scrabble tournament.Despite the joke, naming your BRANDED drug is a HUGE deal.You are looking for a permanent identity to a product you have spent years and millions upon millions of dollars developing.How important is it?When you make out your shopping list do you write ibuprofen or Advil?Advil is a grand slam product name and every drug is looking for that marketing advantage.Prozac, Viagra, and Jardiancer (driven into our consciousness by a ceaseless barrage of dancing and singing) are big winners in the naming game.The actual naming of a branded drug follows a creative process that would be the envy of imagination.Creative name development firms sprang up to help.They employ poets, verbal identification specialist (I kid you not), maybe a little caffeine fueled in house brainstorming.They develop 200 initial choices to which the simplification process of “thoughtful reduction” comes into play looking to reduce the field in a series of “out you go “ sessions.They eventually come down to three and then the choice of one that is sent to the FDA for approval.Yep, Farydak, Avycaz, Luzu are all a result of this process.So, when looking for a way to open your horizons, a little training in the creative process can give you; “the little blue pill with a big story to tell”.

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I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory.John AdamsDo you know where your birth certificate is?I don’t.Maybe the safe deposit box?We do know exactly where the birth certificate for the United States of America is.The Declaration of Independence is secured (unless you’re Nicolaus Cage) in the National Archives in Washington DC.It is, perhaps, the most valuable piece of paper in the world.Why?It’s just 1,337 words.It’s because of what it says.Its succinct length highlights the very principles for which a nation was founded.On July2nd, 1776 the Lee Resolution was passed by the second Continental Conference.This is the document that created the thirteen colonies as free and independent states.The Declaration of Independence is something else.It’s the “why” we wanted our independence.Its aspirational wording created an emotional and idealistic reason for existing.The Second Continental Congress appointed a Committee of Five to create this document.They in turn asked a member, Thomas Jefferson, to draft the wording.Though the Committee had say, it was Jefferson, who retired in isolation for 17 days, creating the draft, that with a few corrections became the document that 56 Americans would affix their signature and change the world.We celebrate the courage, vision and sacrifice of those founding fathers and like them, hope for a future that will meet the ideals they committed to paper.Happy Fourth of July!

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Price is what you pay.Value is what you get.Warren BuffettThere are a lot of big-time successful players in the business world.Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet/Google and others, but there is one juggernaut that dominates our collective consciousness, THE National Football League, a diversified, regional/national sport entertainment operator.The NFL generated over $20 billion in revenue in 2023.Broadcast rights, merchandise, sponsorships, advertising are a few of the money rivers flowing into the NFL.It is estimated that the NFL annually generates over $5 billion to the US economy.Heck, just the NFL Draft Show (in Detroit in 2024) generated $160 million to Detroit.That’s not even a game!The NFL teams are the most valuable in sports with an average of each team at around $5.11 billion.Teams are a BIG deal.In 2022 the Denver Broncos sold for $4.65 billion while the Washington Commanders sold in 2023 for $6 billion.The move of the Raiders from California to Las Vegas beginning in 2020 has had an economic impact of over $2.9 billion to the gambling capital of the world.Just an FYI, 44% of all sports wagering is on the NFL.The most valuable sports franchise in the world are the Dallas Cowboys at $9.6 billion.It would seem NFL teams have no need to creatively develop value, they would just ride the wave of success, but hold on a minute.The Miami Dolphins are the 11thmost valuable team in the NFL with an estimated worth of $5.7 billion.Then why was owner Stephen Ross offered over $10 million?The $4.3 billion difference is in creative packaging.Ross has combined the Dolphins with his ownership of the Hard Rock Stadium (financed with private funds) and his ace up the sleeve, his rights to the Miami Formula One race.The race drew over 250,000 fans, 2.6 million TV viewers, and resulted in $350 million to the Miami economy. Creating value is a constant process for any business.You can ride a wave and let it lift all ships, but value often is found in creativity.

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Wow, thanks Liberty Books!

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“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will RogersDavid McConnell was not a great salesman.In the late 1800’s he was following a tried-and-true sales process for the times.He was a door-to-door salesperson, selling books.It was a tough sales methodology, exhausting and frustrating.With little success, David had an idea.Create a little value add, something special outside the core product.His idea, give every woman that answered the door, irrespective of their purchase of a book, a little something.He gave them a small sample of homemade perfume.Though he did see a bump in book sales, what jumped out at him was that the women loved the perfume. Paying attention is a big deal in sales.He started to make additional scents.His five new floral fragrances were a grand slam. In 1886 he took his perfume discovery and turned it into the California Perfume Co.He quickly hired Persis Foster Eames Albee, a fellow book salesperson and someone that had run a variety store.She suggested that the book sales model might work well for the sales of perfume.Market directly to women at home.The idea was a success, and the sale force grew.They added soaps, cosmetics and facial care products and soon they were selling nationwide.Persis Albee spent over 25 years with the California Perfume Co. and was there when it became the Avon Company. The Avon Company became an entrepreneurial breeding ground for one of the first opportunities for women to have their own business.In the 19thcentury only 1 in 5 women worked outside the home.Pay attention, it’s important.The Avon Company is a $3 billion company with over half a million sales representatives, 93% are women.

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So honored to have been part of the Synergies Podcast! Bill Coppel is an expert interviewer and Trade PMR is one of the leading financial services companies in the country. https://lnkd.in/gp6ByGui

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