Congratulations to Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, who were inducted into The Songwriters Hall of Fame last month and will be inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November, for their indelible contributions to pop music.

Dave and I connected when he was a guest on my radio show series, and I found him to be a fearless, cultural innovator.  We shared a profound conversation around the thrill of continuously pursuing new frontiers and incessantly harnessing our childhood sense of creativity.  There was also a funny moment when I called Dave at a scheduled time, and he was still talking with Mick Jagger on the other line. 

My favorite quote from the conversation, which made it to the back cover of my Slingshot book:

“Slingshot is like looking at things through the other end of a telescope.” – Dave Stewart

#eurythmics #music #rock&roll #innovation #popculture #creativity 

 

Last fall, I was the guest of Vishen Lakhiani - founder of Mindvalley - on his popular podcast. We had a high-energy repartee that delved into the key drivers of radical business creativity.

At the heart of the Slingshot Framework is the premise of always identifying customer pain points and transforming them into points of delight and infatuation. The continuous pursuit of such transformation is what creates irresistible offerings.

Here is an interesting and humorous twist on this process. The Manuscript Writing Café in Tokyo only caters to writers on a deadline, and does not let them leave until their work is finished. Customers can select the level of pressure they will be subjected to by the staff, for example choosing an "S" treatment means that they will be pressured aggressively to complete their work, while "M" represents a milder level of anxiety and less frequent monitoring of their progress.

In essence, the café is replacing the customer pain point of procrastination with another pain point, that of coercion. This is seemingly a welcome substitution of pain by their target audience because it provides them the necessary motivation to ultimately reach their desired point of joy: That of completing their work.

To learn more about the café: https://grapee.jp/en/199026

#motivation #customerexperience #marketinnovation #cafe #customerjourney #innovation

I really enjoyed my guest appearance on the Young and Profiting podcast show. Its host, Hala Taha - the CEO of YAP Media – is a highly gifted conversationalist with a disarming passion for sharing knowledge.

I invite you to listen in on our high-paced repartee here, in which we discuss key elements of Slingshot, ranging from reconnecting with our inner child to mastering Infatuation Intervals:

https://www.youngandprofiting.com/169-slingshot-your-way-to-market-domination-with-gabor-george-burt/

#YAPMedia #podcast #creativity #selfimprovement #leadership

I am currently in Montreal, having led a session at the Women Presidents Organization annual conference. My visit happened to coincide with the national funeral for hockey icon Guy Lafleur.  

The ceremony is taking place at Mary Queen of the World Cathedral in downtown Montreal, right next to my hotel.  This pic is from my hotel room at the moment Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived.

Lafleur, called ‘the blond demon’ was described as a "Jackson Pollock painting on ice, a frenetic innovator who pushed the boundaries of his art beyond what had ever been conceived, a singularly dynamic force that turned an everyday sight as simple as a man on skates with a puck on his stick into a masterpiece — something you had seen before, perhaps, but never quite like that".

#hockey #lafleur #innovation #leadership