Suppressed Inventions

A must read!

Eisen – Suppressed Inventions & Other Discoveries – 2 pages from book

The Life Vessel

Anyone heard of this amazing medical device?

http://www.lifevesseloftherockies.com

I am bringing a center to the Rocky Mountain region!!!

Check us out on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Denver-CO/Life-Vessel-of-the-Rockies/110251289014345?ref=sgm

Bob Parson’s Video Blog – Love it!

Enjoy the video! Bob Parson\'s Video Blog – 5 Things NOT learned in Business School

What’s the most important thing you can do…?

These are some pondering thoughts. It’s a different kind of newsletter from me, but I figure if you keep doing the same thing you have always done you WILL get the same results you have always gotten. Enjoy!

What’s the most important thing you can do in which you would be the most difficult to replace?

I heard this question on a podcast I listened to on the airplane to Dayton. I have been thinking about it all week. It’s not an easy question. However, I desire to find the answer.

I am on a plane back to Denver as I write this. We are experiencing lots of turbulence and I am wondering what the heck I am doing here. This is not what I signed up for when I was born into this world, was it? How am I making a difference sitting alone on this plane (double meaning here airplane and plane of existence). Yes I said alone; yet many others surround me. How can one feel so alone in a crowd?

Am I happy? Well, I can’t really answer that at the moment. I am grateful to have a gig that generously rewards for my time and efforts. I am struggling with the corporate politics and the micro-management. There is a lesson here and I am working through my issues to keep my ego out of the way so I can learn it and move on. Feelings of being trapped are coming up and making me crazy. It’s like I want to bust out and this environment is holding me tightly in its fist. It’s squeezing me so tightly that I feel I am suffocating.

This is not the most important thing I could be doing in which I would be difficult to replace. I could be replaced tomorrow and no one would notice for more than 10 minutes to show someone to the chair in the fluorescent lighted cubicle for one in which I share with 2 others.

I have a pocket full of sunshine that can’t show its rays. When will I be able to shine again? When will I find that ONE thing? I have a great sense of peace about being exactly where I need to be, but yet my mind is playing tricks on me and I feel I need to be somewhere else. Go figure!

There’s a place that I go that no one knows where the river flows and I feel at home. A secret place, behind locked gates, where there are no lies and the darkness is light and there is peace. My body cries to be there and bond with nature and the animals. It’s a place where I feel I can be myself and there is no judgment. I’ll escape to that place again soon…in the meantime I am here on this “plane” pondering the question and wondering what rock to overturn to find that ONE thing. I’ll find it. I don’t give up easily.

There is so much uncertainty in the world today. I just don’t want to waste anymore time doing things that are not world changing and contributing to the greater good. I do want to leave a legacy, be a role model for those that come after me and leave the world a better place. Is that too much to ask? I think not…

10 Brands That Will Disappear In 2010

Are we having fun yet? It’s the start of another glorious year!

Here is an interesting article by 24/7 Wall St. It’s the opinion of the author, but I found it insightful.

My quick update: I am working Sunday through Thursday in Dayton, OH consulting to LexisNexis as an implementation consultant. The contract is through May and it’s been exciting so far.

10 Brands That Will Disappear In 2010

Excellent Article about Strategy

Hi Everyone!

Sorry I have been out of touch for a few months.  I put 1,000% effort into saving my client from drowning.   She is severely in debt and her expenses were more than $20K of her revenues per month.   I was able to cut her expenses more than $15K a month by reviewing her financials and going over each and every bill with a fine tooth comb to cut corners whenever possible.  Also, taking a step back and reviewing the strategy.  Sometimes doing things just because that’s how they have always been done is not a good strategy.  :)  

I am looking for other opportunities to help companies grow and operate more efficiently.  Who do you know either in the United States or Australia?  Yes, I am targeting work in Australia to obtain International experience for 2-3 years or longer if the stars line up.  There are other countries I would consider if you know of opportunities.  

I still have my NASA client in Maryland at the Goddard Space Center overseeing a few machine shops for the James Webb Space Telescope project.   I have several other opportunities I am contemplating as well.  I would like to partner with other consulting firms so I am not going it alone, or take on some projects where I am able to work in an office with a team and support the growth of the company.   My gifts are helping companies operate more efficiently, manage their resources and increase profits and productivity.  Most of you know that the industries I have experience in are very diverse.  They range from Telecommunications / Technology, Automotive, Aerospace, Entertainment / Media and Tourism.

In an effort to provide value to all of you in my network here is a link to a really insightful article.  Enjoy!!!!!!!!   It’s worth reading.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Strategys_strategist_An_interview_with_Richard_Rumelt_2039

This article confirmed a lot of what I have experienced myself.  Moderately diversified companies or niche companies do appear to be more successful.  I have also know plenty of entrepreneurs who were NOT successful until they focused on that ONE THING they did best and stopped trying to launch 10 projects at once.  Entrepreneurs don’t realize that they must first focus on ONE THING and do it well before they can celebrate success and diversify in other projects.   They just get all excited and the next thing you know they are all over the map and not “doing” anything.

It’s interesting to read Richard’s views. I could not agree more with his position about strategy.

I was talking to an associate recently and he said that his client has 1,100 strategic goals for next year.  That’s insane!!!!  No one can manage that type of list.  Most companies can bucket their strategic goals to less than 50, or even less than 30.  He said they can’t get below 1,000.  

I had researched Level 3 Communications in depth because I thought I could help them get back to “good”.  They keep moving the chairs around on the Titanic.  They have invested billions in fiber and most is still dark.  Richard alludes to the fact that an over powered computer is not worth more than the user can use.  Level 3 will NEVER recoup on their investment if they don’t find a customer use for all the fiber they own and are not using.

I also liked the concept of “value denials”.  It’s true that every new product or invention or new service will create an opportunity for improvement or a need for another product, service or invention.  You just have to be clever enough to see it before the next great mind.  

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and have a wonderful Holiday Season.

Sincerely,
Gail

16 Reasons of Success!

Bob Parsons is the founder/CEO of GoDaddy. He has 16 rules of success,
I thought they were excellent. Here they are:

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone.

I believe that not much happens of any significance when we’re in our
comfort zone. I hear people say, “But I’m concerned about security.”
My response to that is simple: “Security is for cadavers.”

2. Never give up.

Almost nothing works the first time it’s attempted. Just because what
you’re doing does not seem to be working, doesn’t mean it won’t work.
It just means that it might not work the way you’re doing it. If it
was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn’t have an
opportunity.

3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think.

There’s an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so
true. It goes like this: “The temptation to quit will be greatest just
before you are about to succeed.”

4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing
that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing
could be.

Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a
cloud of “undefined consequences.” My father would tell me early on,
when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons
Technology going, “Well, Robert, if it doesn’t work, they can’t eat
you.”

5. Focus on what you want to have happen.

Remember that old saying, “As you think, so shall you be.”

6. Take things a day at a time.

No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if
you don’t look too far into the future, and focus on the present
moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.

7. Always be moving forward.

Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing
something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it
starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in
some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily
improvements eventually result in huge advantages.

8. Be quick to decide.

Remember what General George S. Patton said: “A good plan violently
executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”

9. Measure everything of significance.

I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.

10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate.

If you want to uncover problems you don’t know about, take a few
moments and look closely at the areas you haven’t examined for a while.
I guarantee you problems will be there.

11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what
you’re doing.

When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks
perfect at a distance.
Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a
peaceful place.

12. Never let anybody push you around.

In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as
much right to what you’re doing as anyone else, provided that what
you’re doing is legal.

13. Never expect life to be fair.

Life isn’t fair. You make your own breaks. You’ll be doing good if
the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you
get on a bus (i.e., fare).

14. Solve your own problems.

You’ll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you’ll develop a
competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best:
“You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following
the others.” There’s also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of
frequently. It goes like this: “A wise man keeps his own counsel.”

15. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck.
None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.

16. There’s always a reason to smile.

Find it. After all, you’re really lucky just to be alive. Life is
short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always
reminds me: “We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good
time!”

Interview with Dave Taylor, Film Critic

Interview: “Protecting the King” executive producer Gail Lynn

I met Gail at a non-film event and was surprised and intrigued when she started to share with me her involvement in the quasi-documentary “Protecting the King”, a behind-the-scenes look at Elvis Presley and his posse behind-the-scenes while on tour. She generously agreed to the following interview to help clarify what she did for the film and how it was created and produced. If you’re interested in it, it is for sale through Amazon: Protecting the King

Q: What the heck does an executive producer DO on a movie?

GAIL: Nothing about doing this film follow any rules or guidelines. I’ll give you the Hollywood definition and then tell my story.

Basically, an executive producer of a motion picture is someone who finds or funds the film.

A producer is the one who options the story and develops it. Developing it means to hire the director, writer, actors, put together the financing package if money needs to be raised (including legal documents, budgets, etc.).

If you look up the role of a producer or executive producer you will get a variety of explanations.

In my case I partnered with the writer / director and we started the production company. I filled the COO, CFO, Project Executive and investor relations roles. In the true sense of a start-up I wore many hats.

As the film evolved I took on the role of Executive Producer to have credibility in Hollywood. For me that meant helping raise the money, operate the production company, be involved in casting, pre-production, production, post-production, marketing and distribution.

I was with the film from the day the production company was started to the day it hit the shelves. That time frame was approximately 7 years.

Q: Tell us a bit about “Protecting the King”: what’s it about?

continues….

GAIL: Protecting the King is the story of David Stanley. David’s mother Dee married Vernon Presley in 1960. David was just 4 years old. He moved into the Graceland Mansion and Elvis Presley became his step-brother.

The film begins in 1972 when Elvis takes David out of high school and on the road with him. It’s a roller coaster ride for David as a 16-year old boy with the King of Rock-n-Roll. You see Elvis’ demise through David’s eyes and you begin to understand that no one could have saved Elvis. His bodyguards, personal aides and friends protected him from everyone, but no one could protect Elvis from himself.

David had written several books outlining much of his experiences with Elvis and we hired a writer to work with David to flush out the story starting in 1972 and ending in August of 1977. The ending is the recreation of the death of Elvis on that fateful day that many remember exactly where they were when they heard the news of Elvis passing. Much like what we experienced with the recent passing of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. The two deaths have a lot of similarities.

Q: How did you get involved in the project?

GAIL: I love telling the story of how I got involved in the project. Basically it was though my Karate school. I had been working out at a Kenpo Karate school in Dallas, TX when my Karate Master announced a guest speaker would be coming to visit our school and do a seminar. He said the person was the step-brother to the late Elvis Presley. I thought to myself, “yeah, right”. I could not wrap my mind around anyone actually knowing Elvis. He was like an icon, like Mickey Mouse. I decided to come to the seminar just to check out this crazy guy telling people he was family to Elvis.

For those that don’t know, Elvis was an eighth degree black belt in Kenpo Karate and his Master was Ed Parker Sr. I did not know that when I joined this particular school. It was not until I met David Stanley and started working on the project that I learned more than I ever wanted to know about Elvis and his life.

After the seminar I approached David and we talked about his background. Still not believing he was who he said he was I asked him for proof. Yes, I did and yes he did. At the time David was a motivational speaker and he needed someone to help him build his business. I have a strong business background and have built companies before so he hired me as a consultant. I listened to his keynote speeches and motivational seminars. He talked a lot about people doing their dreams and how to define it, eliminate fear, stay focused, etc. One day I asked him his dream and he walked away from me. I was not sure what that meant, but called him back and he said he feared getting to the end of his life and always being known as the step-brother to Elvis and not David Stanley. He continued to say that the one thing that Elvis was not able to do in his lifetime, due to his management only allowing him to be a singer and actor, was direct a film. David told me how much Elvis loved films and shared many fond memories about Elvis renting movie theaters late at night and inviting family and friends to watch movies all night.

Once I heard this story I knew that I could help this man make his dream a reality and create a career for himself that he could be proud of and possibly even come to the end of his life as David Stanley, film maker versus David Stanley, Elvis’ step-brother. I had no idea how this was going to happen, but where there is a will there is a way.

Q: Can you talk about the finances a bit? How much did the film cost to make and, rough, how did that break down on cast, crew, equipment, travel, and so on?

GAIL: This is one of those topics that is not really discussed in Hollywood. I remember trying to find out comparable budgets and looking for information about what things cost on particular films. I think this is treated as sacred knowledge and when you do find the information you are warned it’s probably not true and accurate. It’s a crazy industry.

Our total offering was $2M. What I mean by offering is the legal documentation put together to raise capital from private investors. The production budget was $1.2M. The other monies were used for the development, production company operations, legal, accounting, travel, script development and revisions, salaries, pre-production, post-production, marketing, film festivals, etc. It’s amazing we kept the company running for 7 years without revenues.

Q: Hollywood famously has its own way of keeping the books and it’s amazing how many seemingly successful films ended up never earning back their initial investment. Has “Protecting the King” made it into the black?

GAIL: Yes, a sore subject for most films and film makers especially those that do films outside the major studios. We have sold the rights to our film to 18+ countries and we are in major video retail and rental stores and on Netflix. Our distribution company is Echo Bridge Entertainment and they still have not recouped their investment in bringing the film to market. I will reserve my opinion at this point about Hollywood book keeping.

I am a very optimistic person and I am still working with David Stanley to generate sales of the film through the production company, Impello Films. Impello buys the DVDs wholesale from Echo Bridge and acts as a retail store to generate sales and revenues from the film. David and I both believe all investors will see a return on investment.

Q: What were the greatest obstacles facing your team during the production and editing?

GAIL: There are so many I need to think about which one to mention. Seriously, take two people who have never done a film before and throw them into the Hollywood environment and just sit back and laugh. We broke ALL the rules – mainly because we didn’t know them. Good thing no one told me this would take 7 years.

Production Still: Matt Barr as David Stanley

How about when you have a $500K investor, who was absolutely, positively, without a doubt going to release the money when we were in need of our last $500K back out?! We were in LA and just about finished with pre-production. The wheels were in motion and it would have been a disaster to stop everything that we started. This was probably the most frustrating thing that happened. I was on the phone calling all the current investors which bought in $200K. David and I were out funding raising in the evenings and we did raise the additional $300K. Nothing short of a miracle.

We had a “name” actor committed to playing Elvis who backed out at the beginning of production. Truly a disappointment, but turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Peter Dobson showed up on the set about day 5 of production and we hired him on the spot. Talk about right place, right time!

Those are the two biggies during production.

Editing was a whole different story. Our first editor sold us a bill of goods about his skills. Tens of thousands of dollars, massive amounts of time and weeks later we found out otherwise. He was awful, unprofessional and lacked integrity. Expensive lesson which set us back quite a bit, but we hired a “professional” and got everything fixed in record time without costing tens of thousands more.

Q: Can you explain the difference between an executive producer, a producer, a director, and a cinematographer?

GAIL: I explained producer and executive producer somewhat above. The director and cinematographer (or called DP, Director of Photography) are joined at the hip during pre-production, production and post-production. There is the location scouting, story boarding (planning of each shot in lots of detail) and all the detail that goes with each and every shot / scene of the film. It’s a tedious process. When you see any given scene in a film or on TV you should appreciate what it took to put that together, plan out every angle, position, close-up, etc. It’s an incredible amount of detail and I have so much respect for people who dedicate their lives to this industry.

The Director directs the actors and works with the DP to ensure the finished product is exactly what they planned out in pre-production. It’s the Directors set once ACTION is announced.

That’s a brief summary. There are so many roles once you get to the set. 1st AD (assistant director), 2nd AD, production assistants, set designer, wardrobe designers, lighting, camera crew and on and on.

Q: Did you show up in the film at all, and if so, what was that like? (and did you have to join the Screen Actors Guild to not get in trouble?)

GAIL: I did make an appearance in a Karate scene (seemed appropriate), but you only saw the back of my head / ponytail. I didn’t join SAG and probably won’t get in trouble. They will have to prove it was me. Ha ha!

Q: What is it like to be in the back of the room at the Cannes Film Festival and have your film being shown?

GAIL: Oh my gosh! That was amazing. Nerve-racking too! You see all these people coming in and a lot of times they don’t stay (you have to know this is the process so you don’t think they are walking out and hate it). They look for many different things and they have to screen hundreds of films so they have to manage their time. I enjoyed seeing the places when people laughed or gasped. I remember one scene I didn’t really get, but every audience seemed to get it. Finally someone had to explain it to me. Oh well. It’s fun to experience an audience viewing your work.

Q: Finally, what’s your next film project, Gail, if any?

GAIL: No more film projects for me. I remember telling my Dad I was 32 and the next time I remember talking about my age I was 38. In order to pull this off we had to eat, drink, sleep, breathe, live the movie. It was one of the toughest projects I have ever done. Prior to it I have been challenged in manufacturing with new car builds, telecommunications with $10-12M budgets on high-profile projects with Verizon / Google, built a successful international consulting practice and so much more. Everything I have done in my career seemed like a cake walk once I was in the throws of making a film.

It’s not that I am afraid of hard work, but I don’t fit in this industry. I was traveling 2 weeks or more every month. I lived in LA for the filming. I felt like balance in my life did not exist with the craziness and competitiveness of Hollywood. I envision a calmer, more fulfilling life for myself.

If I had the chance to do it all again, I would. I just don’t want to do it AGAIN since I have already done it. Make sense?

Thanks for the opportunity to share a brief glimpse of my view of Hollywood and the movie making process.

Visit Dave’s Site: http://www.daveonfilm.com

Posted in Personal Growth | Tagged Dave Taylor, David Stanley, Elvis Presley, Gail Lynn, Michael Jackson | Leave a Comment »