Lee Kitchen with Magical Dude Consulting
On this week's Industrial Talk Podcast we're talking to Lee Kitchen, President and Lead Innovation Catalyst of Magical Dude Consulting about “Being Fearless and Creative with your Business”. Get the answers to “being fearless” questions along with Lee's unique insight on the “How” on this Industrial Talk interview!
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Company Website: https://www.magicaldude.com/
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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
ideas, people, worked, solving, innovation, pitch, creativity, epcot, cred, innovate, disney, industrial, create, magical, industry, problems, important, collaborate, world, creative
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Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So good on your hardhat, grab your work boots, and let's go.
Alright, welcome to industrial talk. Thank you very much for joining us the number one industrial related podcast in the universe that celebrates you, you're an industrial Pro, accept it, embrace it, that we celebrate you each and every day, because you are bold, you are brave, you dare greatly. You're solving problems, you're innovating. You're making my life better, you're making the world better. Thank you very much for what you are doing. Okay, in the hot seat. I'm a big fan of industrial entertainment. We've got a gentleman by the name of league kitchen. Now he is the founder of okay, magical dude consulting. And I'm just telling you right now, we've got to be we've got to put ourselves out there, let's let's get a little uncomfortable and make the content we develop more fun. Let's get cracking. I'm always a big fan of going to Disneyland. I like what they do. They never stop innovating. They always have front of mind, right there front of mine each and every day to deliver an experience a wonderful experience for the customers or in their case, guests. And I me personally, I'm intrigued by that, especially within industry, right? I think there is a a magical component to what you do, and what we have been talking about over the past number of years. And that is that innovation that comes from industry that comes from the people of industry that that that are truly solving problems. But unfortunately, I was writing this down when I was working out unfortunately, I don't think people are really listening. Or if they are, are they really consuming it. And I wrote a couple of this the things down. And I think what's impressive, and you got to think about this. And I and I've worked I've done what, over 3000 podcasts, and I sort of distilled it down to these qualities have done more, but don't don't. It's like, if it's not entertaining, if your content is not entertaining, let's say as dry as popcorn. Say it's a white paper, whatever. If it's not entertaining, people are not consuming it. And people are not listening. Trust me, it happens if you don't have the street cred. And let's say what that means. If I've just a new guy outta out of college, and I'm, I'm talking to some seasoned industrial manufacturing professional about what they need to do. I don't have the street cred. And so they're not going to listen. They don't. And in fact, I was doing some work when I was with Price Waterhouse with other utilities. And unfortunately for me, I had that background as a journeyman lineman. I climbed the towers, I negotiated these contracts. Anyway, I had that street cred, and therefore my recommendations, my insights, my conversations were rooted in that street cred. And so if you don't have the street cred, it's hard, especially in industry and manufacturing, for people to listen or consume your content. That's, that's number two. And then
this is where it gets really challenging. I know we're all sitting there going, well, we got to sell. We've got to generate some revenue. We've got to close some deals. And so many of these these webinars, the his virtual events turn out to be sort of infomercial light, or just full on infomercial about the products, the solutions that are being served up at that time. And I I'm not, you know, not getting you just slapping them upside the head on this thing is just a fact that I think people in general are interested in solving problems interested in what is that innovative solution. And, and these are the things that I I'm struggling with. And here it is, right. And if it's to infer commercially, people are not going to listen, I don't listen to him on TV. It's just not how we roll. And and especially in an industry as a whole, that's just not how we roll. So I challenge you. First off, try to be entertaining. What does that look like, Ah, I just put myself out there, you might have an entertaining style, but I'm just telling you right now be more entertaining, people will consume your content. And then again, you're going to have to have some street cred. You just can't just roll up and say I know everything about whatever. And you don't, it'll get sniffed out and sniffed out quickly, and nobody's gonna listen to you, and you'll lose credibility. And then third, let's, I challenge you not to be infomercial ish, or infomercial light. And I understand the necessity, understand the necessity of being able to want to close deals and understand the necessity to, to communicate that feature function. Get it on it. However, I think it's all baked in. And if you're solving somebody's problem, it's all in there, and they're going to look to you for help. That's just how I think it's gonna roll. All right. One thing to put on your calendar, I had a great interview with a gentleman by the name of Paul Holland. And he is a partner with Mark 49. And my 49 is a VC firm. And what fascinates me about anything that's around financing, and venture is especially right now, if there's a need, there is a need to be able to have partners on your side that can deliver capital that is necessary for you to scale. And so we're going down that road, and we've got one I'm going to release his his conference. conversation, I want to say this Thursday. Anyway, it's going to be out there, however it's going to be it's a great, great call, and conversation. We talk a lot about a lot of things important. You need money to expand for your technology and your solutions. All right. Lee kitchen, magical dude.com He has a Disney pedigree, been there for a long time. But he takes that type of training that that incites that, that passion to innovate, and create something that's really quite, quite fascinating. And I think that you're going to like this conversation because I think, again, I think that we need more of this type of approach when it comes to industry and communicating what we do. old guys like me, maybe not but new people. Yes, they do. I guarantee you they do. Alright, enjoy this conversation with Lee. All right, Lee, welcome to industrial talk that I'm telling you right now listeners, this is gonna be a really a barnburner of a conversation because he was going to bring even the kitchen sink. How about that? Ah, good one. That you haven't heard that one before? No, never. outta here. Kitchen is his name. He is the founder, which is pretty doggone cool. I like this magical dude consulting. Yeah, thank you. Hey, our man. That's all good.
I am. I'm stoked to be here, man. About you and talk about you all the time.
I am a big deal. I am. Absolutely. Don't tell my wife that. You got it. Nearby kids because they'll blow you like, yeah, yeah, right. Anyway, for the listeners, let's get this thing are cracking. Let's give us a little background on who Lee is, and, and your pedigree. And we're gonna be talking about creativity and innovation on this particular podcast. Talk to us.
Awesome. Alright, so I am a long term Disney guy. I worked 32 years for the mouse. And it was my lifelong dream since I was six years old. I grew up in Northern California. And when I turned 18 I graduated high school and I moved to Florida on that same three day period.
You didn't go to Anaheim. No, you know, I
went there. That's where my inspiration came from. My grandparents used to take me to Disney all the time, but I was a huge Walt fan and I loved his his vision for what Epcot should have been. And so when they decided to make Epcot a theme park and said I was still a huge fan, so I wanted to be I wanted to be at Epcot. That was that was my gig. And my very first job was as an operator in the land Pavilion at Epcot. And I basically realized my lifelong dream and a team and the rest is just cake. Really?
Oh, yeah, I gotta interject. I found this out because we're gonna make it. We're gonna make it a point to go to Orlando go to Epcot. Nice typically for the drinks around the world. Yeah, Food
and Wine Festival. Yes. Awesome. Make sure you take plenty of money in my 401k, and my stock price appreciates it. Thank
you. That's all fine. We will contribute, but well worth it. I was yeah, it's
a really great event. And actually, my next step, and Disney after I worked for years in operations, I actually went into special events. And I worked on the first team that that started the Food and Wine Festival and the Flower Garden Festival. And it was funny, because we had to basically go in and tell leadership, hey, we've got this great idea for an event, but it's not gonna make any money for five years. Yeah, and they bought it. And you know what, it's the most successful event that the Walt Disney world has ever seen. And year over year, it still brings the crowds back. And it's it's really great. So I'm glad to hear you're gone.
I was so excited. When I found out about I said, Are you kidding me? at Epcot, I could wander the world? Yeah, drink and enjoy. Yep, I'm all dialed in.
You're gonna have a great time you guys. Again, just bring bring plenty of funds, because it's top of style stuff. But you can definitely clear through a lot of small glasses of wine and champagne and beer. There's a lot of beer too. So
yeah, financial expectations out. I'm game.
Alright, good. So after that, after I worked there, I went into PR for a little bit. And I helped on making kind of PR moments. And after that, I went to be a brand manager and I was a brand manager for 10 years and Strategy Manager I worked part time part at the parks. And then I worked seven years at Disney Cruise Line, an amazing product. If you've never sailed on Disney Cruise, it's definitely an amazing experience. And then my last 10 years, I worked for a group called Creative Inc, which was the internal in, in house design thinking group. So we basically help people solve challenges in a different way. But we also help train people to think creatively and make creativity a skill. And make innovation is a habit, right. And we were practitioners of it. So we got to help all different parts of the company, come up with their next big thing. And that wasn't just in parks, we also helped the Walt Disney Studios, we have Lucasfilm we have Pixar, it was a really great gig, we got to travel the world doing it too. So my last gig, it was one of the one of the most fun gigs I had and and then after I left, I took basically that skill that I learned there, and now I offered it up to businesses around the world. And basically helping people think differently about their challenges and helping train them to be more creative on a habitual basis. And basically helping people change their culture and their business.
Alright, I've got a couple of questions to pepper you with, go for it defined design thinking what does that mean?
So it's basically a structured approach to problem solving. And it's, it's at the at the heart of it is human needs. So it's human centered design, which means we're gonna figure out what our end user what our audience really needs first, before we go creating stuff. And before we make products and services or marketing campaigns for them, because so many times we make assumptions about our, our buyers, our end users are whoever they happen to be, and we create stuff that they don't need. And so identifying the need up front is is really an important part of that piece. And in order to do that, you really have to walk in your consumer shoes. Yeah.
Let's say you just sort of sit there, right? Yeah. And somebody comes up with this idea. It has to go someplace. I mean, they might always Yeah, on the street. And it's like, you know, that's important. That might be something happens in the shower, though, right? Yes. Yeah.
And that's where that's like the number one answer. When I ask people where's your best ideas?
They always say the shower, walking my dog dry, dry erase board, man. That's all you need. But But that's where it starts it. Yeah, it's just, and then you have to dive in. To see
I mean, it starts with a hypothesis. It's just like science, you start with a hypothesis or a hunch about what's going on, you go out to prove your hunch, you talk to plenty of end users, you get plenty of inspiration. And then you got to define, okay, this is what we really want to solve for here. Let's get some more inspiration for our consumers. And then we can create some ideas and once we create the ideas, let's just polish those ideas to be awesome before we go execute them. You know, again, it's just a it's a putting a little bit of a structured approach to creating something new and different, basically,
is there a I understand but is there a marketing component to that, let's like, let's say you, you go through this design, thinking does problem solving you, you really refine it, you still have to get that message out and get it out in such a way that makes sense for the consumer saying, Yeah, of course,
you go through the same process to create the marketing plan. I mean, I spent the last five years at Disney, I worked for the Alliance marketing team. And most of the brainstorms and ideation session I had was creating a marketing campaign to attract a specific audience with a with a service or a product that we came up with at another session. So yeah, definitely, definitely a marketing component to that. It's it's a different kind of brainstorm, and you come up with different ideas. But yeah, and you'll find those those marketing people that you work with, they're usually more practiced in creativity. And that's why they're given the you know, the title, Creative Director and art director and things like that, because they're practice creatives, they call them creatives, because they do it every day, right. But everybody else in the organization is equally as creative. They just don't practice it as much right? My finance guy, and when I worked for Epcot, man, he can really think creatively about how we made sure we spend that budget throughout the year, right? He didn't have creativity in his title, but man, he was super creative, you know. So so it's, it's a matter to me, it's a matter of, of, uh, getting practiced and getting out there. And a lot of people just don't practice creativity on a daily basis. Right. And I'm
just so bullish on the term creatives, because me too, in the industry, right? We, we have solutions, we're trying to solve problems. It's all great. But I think we can we, we have a decent time at identifying problems and doing maybe we have a real challenge. And it's not the slam anybody. If you're listening to it, it you can, you can chirp and call me whatever. But that doesn't matter is the creative side. Because I believe if you have an innovative solution, and add innovate it is, but if you don't deliver it in a creative way to get people to consume, or to listen, or to take every whatever you fail.
Yeah, I totally agree. Part of the part of the stuff that I do in my workshops is the pit I spent a lot of time on the actual pitch. So here it is, You created all this great stuff. But you got to get by your you know, your stakeholders, your leadership, whoever it may be, and a lot of ideas fall and fail at that point. And it's like, wow, you work three months on that idea. You want to make sure you bring it to life in a way that somebody can understand it. And when new ideas come out, they sound horrible. You know, at first, they sound terrible, you know that? I mean, every time you probably have a good idea, and you tell it to your to your wife, or whoever you get that look like what are you talking about? Am I right? Yeah, it's a humbling experience. I was Oh, yeah. But I mean, like, that's what they all even even when Uber and Netflix and all those game changers came out. They sounded stupid. I mean, who wants to ride home with a stranger from a bar? Nobody's gonna do that. My mom told me not to write with strangers, you know what I'm saying. So now, that's what I'm saying. They all sound ridiculous. But the trick is, like you said, the trick is to make sure that you do that pitch, right. And you get it, you get it pulled forward. So you can do something with it. Right?
And as Yeah, as a Disney plus guy. There is like that. Yeah, what do these documentaries or whatever. And there's a point where they're pitching, and they're, they've got the board, they're doing everything? And yeah, until the stress is just off the charts. Because
yeah, it's all or nothing. It's nothing. And that's a lot of work. And probably a lot of dollars that you spent at that point, right?
True. And I even I get all nervous. I hope
you like please don't feel I mean, that's why I love watching the Shark Tank. And you see those guys coming into Shark Tank? Some of them haven't prepped, right? And they're like, No, dude, you did not even come close to bringing that idea to life. Correct? Yeah, no, that's a good that's really important stuff. And like I said, you have to make that stuff real because it's, it's really hard for people to see your vision. And I do in my workshops, I use the example of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the producer for that show on onset, took 10,000 pounds in cash to the pitch meeting, and they played it in real life. And so he used his own money to play all of the scenarios. And it was like it made that person feel exactly how the audience was going to feel. So it was it was a great sell, because he used the real money for it. And you got to think of ways to bring that stuff to life. Otherwise, all that work down the drain, right? Wow, that then also I say no, no bad ideas, just bad timing. So I say even if your idea doesn't, doesn't have merit, that one particular time put it in a folder because it might come back up and you might be like, hey, this applies to this challenge, too. Hey, why not? No bad idea. Just bad timing.
Flavored sunflower seeds. That was my idea. Come on.
That's a great idea. But somebody took it. That's I know you sit on long enough. Someone's just gonna take it. I had one for a For a video, solar activated video screens in tombstones so that you can see the story of the person that's there, somebody took that already. I sat on that one for like four or five years, all of a sudden, I'd see him selling. I'm like, Darn it, I waited too long, I would go to the dog cemetery just for that. Yeah, because you know what you want to hear the story in my mind, you wanted to hear the story about a person. And so I thought maybe repeating video that just plays in it's powered by solar electricity. So you don't have to worry about replacing the battery anything?
Oh,
come on, let's do that.
No, that's cool. Because I got more, I got more. I'm loaded baby, the kitchen sink,
keep us it's funny too. Because, you know, my job is to basically extract ideas out of people. And I don't usually like come up with ideas until I leave a session. And then I'll have like five or six ideas towards their their cause. And that's kind of just the way my creative brain works. I get them to come up with ideas. And I come up with ideas later. But I also make the point of, hey, we came up with all the ideas, we wrote them all down on the spot, go back to the spot two days later and write down what else we have. Because inevitably, when you leave the session and the brainstorm, that's when you come up and you're in the shower, you're walking your dog or whatever, you're gonna come up with a lot more. So let's not stop at the actual physical session, go ahead and add in your two cents afterwards. Because that's there's a lot of good content that you might miss. If you don't get it,
it never stops. It never stops. You seem to me like you're you're an Ideator?
Is that what you would qualify yourself as?
Excuse me?
Are you an Ideator? Yes, we have a we have a Myers Briggs style thing in creativity that we call foresight. And it's basically divides up creativity profiles into four profiles. One is a clarifier, which means you just have to ask a bunch of questions before you get started on a problem. Another one's an IDA, which means you love to create ideas all the time. Another one is implementer. Or excuse me, a developer, which means you like to take an idea and really develop it. And then other ones implemented, which is you're on the floor operation style, folks. So it's interesting when you do that for a group of people to find out how your team is based, because if you put four clarifiers together, they'll never get anything done, because they're busy asking questions. But at the same time, if you put four ideas together, they'll come up with a bunch of ideas, but they won't get anything done after that, you know, so you got to mix it up.
I was I can't remember it. I was reading a book. Yeah. It's a book. I don't have it in front of me. But it's a book and it was really talks about innate they call them disruptors, right? Yep. No, no catalysts. Catalyst. Yeah. So I'm a catalyst. But I can't have a roomful of catalysts. Because then everything that we
need to we need to intersperse you in with the other or the other. Yes, I actually, that's one of the things I tell my clients, I'm like, please make sure that you bring those you know, think about those catalysts. Because everybody's got those catalysts in their organization. I know who they are. And I might bring them in and tell me who they are. So I can make sure that they inspire all the other people because people like having someone to kind of lead that discussion. And it really does help draw it out from both introverts and extroverts, because I want to make sure both both people, both styles have a way to get their ideas. But having those catalysts come and be there upfront is a great way to make sure that everybody kind of mixes it's the same way, Scott is if you're having a party, you got to invite a few of those people for the party, because they're the ones that are gonna keep the party going. You know,
that's why I'm always hired out. Yeah, I
mean, party. That's why you're invited to the big event. Scott, you are that part you are the catalyst. You gotta keep that up, though. You keep going to great events have to
bring me to a wedding. I'm on there, man. Yeah. First on the dance
floor. My wife, actually I do I do a workshop that's called party your way to great ideas. Like I do a metaphorical comparison between a brainstorm and a party. And you really need the exact same components. You need the right people in the room, you need to drive the conversation, you need to monitor the arc of the party and make sure you hit the right notes at the right time. And you need to have an after party, which is you know, let's get together and see what we talked about, you know, and then sometimes the After After Party,
say I love this approach. And you're just speaking my language, of course, you're speaking it in such a way that is synced as opposed to me being all over the place page. Yeah, I got your fan driving my daughter crazy, or my wife crazy. Anyway, let me just sort of backtrack a little bit over, you talked about one of the most key component is like this pitch, give me sort of a structure of a good pitch.
In my mind, a good pitch has a an analogous or metaphorical way to describe your idea that somebody can get. So it's taking something familiar, and, excuse me comparing it to something unfamiliar. That's one thing. Yeah. Another thing is his passion and succinctness. There's so many people that pitch every last little detail, and you really have to get to the point really quickly, because a lot of times your executive team, you know, you're pitching to your EVP or his SVP or whatever, they don't have time they got they give you five minutes or 15 minutes fighting for the time that you need is important, but they might not give it to you, right. So making sure that you're succinct, and also making sure that you kind of took them on the quick consumer journey of how you got there and identifying upfront identifying that that need and what you're solving for. Because it's hard for them not put themselves in their consumer shoes, when they might not be the audience, right? They're not the consumer. So you have to get them to feel like the end user, the consumer just a little bit, so they can understand what it is that you're trying to pitch that solves that need, that a lot of people fail on that because the the executive is not even close to the target audience. So they have no understanding of what's going on, right. And so you have to get them to feel like the consumer feels just for a brief moment. And then and then bring it back. And that's all about storytelling, good storytelling, is really how you get people to, to sway on your ideas is bringing that story to life. Good. And going beyond words, I always say visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, using all three of those things to make sure that because the audience that you're pitching to, you might, you know, like, numbers and, and words better than another person might like pretty pictures, and another person might need to see and smell and touch something significant that has to do with your product or something like that, right. So keeping that stuff in mind to
a year you're spot on. I I like the metaphor in it. And the reason is, and maybe it's just me, if somebody pitches me something, but uses a metaphor, I'm all in and it's up, it's an, it's a great way to quickly understand it, right, switch job done. And then you can sit there and you've got it move forward. And I like I think there are plenty of books out there about storytelling. And if you're not a good storyteller, grab a book, and read how to do that, because that's super powerful as well. And, and in industry, we we tend to be very passionate about our widget, and then we'll dive deep into the code. And then we'll dive deeper into the API's that connect that code. Yeah, by that time, it's just fine.
If you're speaking to the API, the code person, but most of the time, a leader is not that, you know, because they're, they might be twice removed from that. So you have to come up with a way to speak their language, you know,
so, so know, your so know your audience. Yeah,
that's an important piece.
That's very good. Now, I always talk about education, collaboration and innovation, because I like education, get a good book, figure out how to storytel to collaborate, like you and others who look at the world differently solve problems in a unique way. But it's important to have that dialogue, have that conversation. Absolutely.
And also, you know, what's got my idea is great, but my idea is only going to be made better when you add your two cents, right? Because I don't even know where you're coming from. But when we put our, our great stuff together, it's gonna be better trust me. You know, I know there's a lot of people that come up with individual ideas, and they're geniuses and all that kind of stuff. But I have seen in my line of work, that collaborate collaboration always leads to better outcomes. Always, always, always. I will, I will, you know, that's one of the top things that I will say is, I have great ideas, I have an idea, but man, you have great ideas, too. And we put them together, it's gonna be monstrous going to be great.
It is an interesting thing to begin to embrace. And I think that COVID has really shine the light on the necessity to collaborate. Yeah, COVID We brought our I always say we brought our C game, whatever it might be. And yeah, really tight lipped. And we held our cards close to the vest, and we had to switch it up really quickly to did we ever did heads. I don't have the answers, what do I do? And so that's outside of all the degree of the COVID. That's a positive thing that took place with COVID.
The law challenged us to kind of rethink how we, you know, are absolutes, because you know, there's an absolute that a fancy restaurant couldn't provide delivery food, oh, there's no way we could ever do that. That's not what we do. And so all of a sudden, I'm getting delivery from the fanciest restaurant in town, and it tastes delicious. So they overcame it. But they you know, before when they're closed mind, they wouldn't have been able to do it. But out of necessity, they had to come up with something.
Right. That's a great analogy, because you're absolutely right. It didn't take long for them to say, yeah, yeah, come by my curve.
I remember when I was at Disney, we one of my bosses would always say there's no way we can have brainstorms over video, they have to be there in person they have to have to have to, and I was like, well, actually, I mean, I could do it. I just had to make sure that there was someone like me a facilitator on the other side. And so when I started becoming where I had to do all this stuff over zoom, it was like, Oh, I know exactly how to do this because I totally violated my boss's wishes and did. And we did it right. We all got together virtually. And yes, I always call the obvious out right away. Hey, here's the elephant the room. Yes, we're not in person. I'm sorry. But let's act like we are right Let's bring our in real life presence as much as possible to this little video stream. This is not a YouTube video, it's not a kitty cat video, this is you and me interacting, just as if we're sitting in a coffee shop. So please, you know, don't put a bag over your head and show up to the meeting with your video off. You know, like, you want to walk into a meeting with a bag over your head with you know, so you know, let's all show up. And let's act like we're actually together. And I know it's not perfect, but we got to do it. And we're gonna come up with some great stuff because of it. So there you have it.
Alright, so we're talking also about innovation, right? Why is innovation, that that creative energy that could exist in your organization that needs to exist in your organ must exist? Important for innovation? Why is innovation important to a business?
I just think of, you know, Blockbuster man, Blockbuster was refused to innovate. And here comes Reed Hastings and offers to sell him this, sell them the great idea of no late fees, and unlimited selection, and all that kind of stuff. And they just couldn't see past the end of their nose. And so it's, it's hard to be complacent in today's world, because somebody else will replace you, somebody else's, aren't your consumers already having that dialogue, and they're gonna find something else. So you have to stay ahead as much as possible. And you can't rest on your laurels, right, you have to just constantly challenge ourselves. And if you're standing around saying, this is the way we've always done it, we're always going to do it like this. It's it's a tough gig, because you might not be there anymore. And I see I see a couple of organizations that really could use this one is golf, another one is boating. And another one is, is alcoholic beverages. Now they did they didn't stretch themselves to create the cinnamon whiskey and stuff like that. They did pretty good. But I mean, I haven't really seen innovation in those industries in in as much as I'd want to, you know, like, like, fundamental changes. You know,
a there's, I'll tell you something about whiskey. There's one guy up in Cleveland, Ohio, and he is applying, you got, there's the chemistry side that, okay, you got to produce the alcohol, it's just the donation, whatever. And but he to speed up the the aging process of the Spirit, he pushes, puts it into pressure vessels. Now it's up. Yeah. So
he like a instapot, which was instapot really wasn't an innovation, think about the instapot. All it is, is a pressure cooker. And they identified a need that that the audience needed the target audience needed, which was something really quick. Well, it's something that your grandmother used was really quick, but it was a hassle, because you had to clamp it down and had the thing and it could explode at any time. So they made it safe. And they made it easy. And what did they do? They reintroduced the pressure cooker to a whole new audience that really needed it.
And I that's a great example. Thank you. I loaded in a big way. So but No, his pressure vessel fluctuates. And it's, and so it takes a little wood pieces, which you can use anyone. So it takes a little wood pieces, it makes them like into little sponges, suns in the alcohol speeds it up. That's interesting,
but I love so I love hearing stories like that, because that's really us. You know, many companies would call that a renovation and not an innovation but one little tiny thing could that you think is a renovation could lead to an innovation that you don't even know about yet. You know, that's you i I've worked for a couple of clients that ask for just renovations because they don't have budget for a complete innovation. But what happens is they create a renovation to an existing product, which turns out to be a brand new product that doesn't exist. They're like that's an innovation, something new and novel that people want.
So, so. So I hear what you're saying lean in. And I think there has to be a formal process within the organization that is focused on that innovation, that dreaming that that that creativity, of the better life going forward, whatever it might be. Yep. But it has to be formalized, because many companies don't they get into trouble. This is how they do it. Bla bla bla bla bla,
and your ideas get lost to like, nobody knows where to put a lot. And there's, you know, there's frontline people that have the greatest ideas, but they're never heard from and so what good is doing you unless you can hear from those people who are living in every day. You know, so I agree wholeheartedly. There has to be some sort of structure to make sure those ideas can can see the light of day, you know,
especially now, I the way technology exists today. There's there there is more of a yes, there's a solution as opposed to no we can't because I think technology is in such a way that will help facilitate greater creativity. If you just are In the game, and you formalize that process I, yeah, I agree with you 100%. And
also, in my mind, also, you have to, you have to own it. And if you, if you found it in, it doesn't work, like if you're a leader of an organization, and you say, Oh, we're gonna do some innovation, creativity, and then we're going to put the box back up on the shelf and go back to the way we normally do stuff. You're not really only you have to, like, you have to walk the walk and talk to talk, you know, and you have to do it repeatedly. You can't just do a one time. That's why I always talk in my workshops that you have to somehow make this a habit. And you have to challenge yourself on a daily basis to make sure that this stays creativity stays a habit. It's not just something you pull off a shelf for a one time brainstorm.
Yeah, I, I can't support you even. I mean, this is amazing. Because creativity is key. Yeah, especially if you're gonna collaborate, if that is a driver for you as an organization to solve problems, then the necessity for design think has to be a part of it. Creativity, Innovation, and he can't keep at it. You can't just say, Oh, he didn't do anything that day, no big deal, no big deal. You've got to be, just stick with it, and be in the game and make and
even if it fails to you have to be ready to accept a few failures, because it's not every one of them is going to be great, right? So you just have to keep trying.
That's a whole other conversation. I know.
I was like, we're already in the 40 minutes here. You got a lot of time today
accepted. Well, then let's just wrap. Now, I love this because it's it communicates the necessity to innovate and to bring that innovation to succeed and create a business of resiliency. yet but the analogy of blockbuster, absolutely. Here today. Gone Tomorrow. Yeah, no, it's not too bad. Yeah. If they didn't have the capital to make it happen, they did. They just got
they got arrogant, we are way better. This is how we do it.
Yes. Put that on a shelf. Put that out.
That's a whole other conversation. I
gotta hear that arrogance away from it. Alright, so you're speaking my language. And you're probably inspiring some listeners out there, get out of it. And I see just one second, you got the inspiration report. Speaking of inspiring, tell us a little bit about that. Tell us how we can get a hold of you.
Okay, so you can get a hold of me through my website, which is magical dude, calm. Once a month. good buddy of mine, Shawn. And I do a report called The Inspiration report. And basically, we pick out about 15 Different inspiring innovations, product services that are happening in the world. And we present it and talk about it, we generate a lot of dialogue in the chat. So we do that on my Twitch channel, which hopefully that you'll post there. It's also on magical dude calm, you can check that out. And yeah, we hope to, you know, really the one thing I tell people is that you have to get fresh input. And you have to make sure that you you again, make that a habit of going outside your comfort zone to get that input. Because when it comes time to collaborate and make connections, if you can't just stick with the stuff that you know, you know. So what we basically say if you can't go anywhere else for inspiration, come see us. It's an hour 1130 Eastern, the first Friday of every month, this month will be on October 29. So we're gonna do a special Halloween episode. So
that's that one. Wow. So listeners, you actually you
get to be on the mailing list, Scott, because everybody, every time we do a podcast, you immediately get on the mailing list. So
yay, I'm always gonna you know what's interesting, I read them, I want to know, get get on out there. I want to see how people are approaching the market, what they're communicating, and how they're communicating it. And the good and it's the good, bad and the ugly. If I don't understand if I don't see how this is good. I want to see why and, and not duplicated or or try to improve it or whatever it might be. That to me is important and good. That's, that's just me. So sign up for dog on. They're not spam. It's just information. Figure it out, man. That's yeah, yeah. lead to a mailing list. Alright listeners. That's the kitchen. He did bring in. I mean, just truth bombs. God, that was good, man.
Good. I had a great time. You're a great guy. And I really believe in what you're doing. So
I'm a great guy. Do not come to me and say, Scott, you're not a great guy. Because let's let's be creative out there. Let's be innovative out there. Let's collaborate. Let's educate. You can educate it's it's got the worldwide limit your dog got fingertips. Yeah, figure this out. No excuses, no excuses, and be a business of resilience and reach out to a bank. I can't believe magical dude URL was available.
I know me there I was totally floored Well, I was like, magical dude is available. Yeah. And I buy every permutation of a tube that's gonna do that us that calm down. Like crazy.
Did you get dude magical?
I did not. But I was pretty happy with that score. i It was funny too, because I sent him like, I have three WhatsApp threads that I'd send it like in all caps. And everyone's like, what is the big deal? Like you don't understand?
No URLs? Yeah,
well, so I thought I'd have to negotiate it for $9,000 and someone got paid. I paid $12 for it. So
that's another conversation. Yeah. All right, Lee, you were absolutely wonderful.
Thanks, man. It's a pleasure. And whenever you want to talk about it again, you just give me a call. I'll come in, I got plenty more stories. So
alright, listeners, we're gonna wrap it up on the other side. So if you're not gonna have all Lee's contact information, his website and anything else we can probably put in there. We're gonna be posting his there's a podcast he has there. He's got a video. We got a lot of stuff about Lee. So go out to industrial talk.com You can find out more. So stay tuned, we will be right back.
You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.
Alright, enjoy that conversation. As you can tell, Lee brought the goods to the house. And I'm just telling you right now you've got to get out of your comfort zone, you just do. You can't have conventional thinking, No, do not run away from it. And and really try to get people if you're in the business of trying to get people to listen to what you have to say, You got to be entertaining, you got to have the street cred. And you definitely can't be an infomercial, you got to help them solve problems. That says sort of the secret sauce right here. Go out again, magical dude.com reach out to him, you're not going to be disappointed. I guarantee you. Alright. Let's push our envelope. Let's stop being conventional. Let's start being somewhat disruptive in the way we we communicate our value. I want you to hang out with people who are bold, brave and Daring Greatly find them. Give them a part of your posse, whatever you need to do, and and you'll see that you're going to be changing the world. You're going to see that greater value is going to be coming to you bottom line. All right. Thank you very much for joining us real talk. We're gonna have another great conversation right around the corner.
Transcript
Hey industrial Talk is brought to you by CAP logistics. You want to minimize downtime. Absolutely. increase reliability, you bet ensure operational profitability. Yes you do. That means you need 24/7 365 insights into your supply chain, look no further cap logistics, go to Capitol logistics.com Or just call them they're great people 800-227-2471 also TX one now you know cybersecurity is important if you're on this digital transformation journey, TX one networks has the solutions for you. And you're saying to yourself, Scott, they're going to be complex, they're going to be difficult. No TX one's taken that into consideration. And they provide a suite of solutions that truly meet your cybersecurity needs, go out to T x one dash networks.com and find out more, you're not going to be disappointed.
Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So good on your hardhat, grab your work boots, and let's go.
Alright, welcome to industrial talk. Thank you very much for joining us the number one industrial related podcast in the universe that celebrates you, you're an industrial Pro, accept it, embrace it, that we celebrate you each and every day, because you are bold, you are brave, you dare greatly. You're solving problems, you're innovating. You're making my life better, you're making the world better. Thank you very much for what you are doing. Okay, in the hot seat. I'm a big fan of industrial entertainment. We've got a gentleman by the name of league kitchen. Now he is the founder of okay, magical dude consulting. And I'm just telling you right now, we've got to be we've got to put ourselves out there, let's let's get a little uncomfortable and make the content we develop more fun. Let's get cracking. I'm always a big fan of going to Disneyland. I like what they do. They never stop innovating. They always have front of mind, right there front of mine each and every day to deliver an experience a wonderful experience for the customers or in their case, guests. And I me personally, I'm intrigued by that, especially within industry, right? I think there is a a magical component to what you do, and what we have been talking about over the past number of years. And that is that innovation that comes from industry that comes from the people of industry that that that are truly solving problems. But unfortunately, I was writing this down when I was working out unfortunately, I don't think people are really listening. Or if they are, are they really consuming it. And I wrote a couple of this the things down. And I think what's impressive, and you got to think about this. And I and I've worked I've done what, over 3000 podcasts, and I sort of distilled it down to these qualities have done more, but don't don't. It's like, if it's not entertaining, if your content is not entertaining, let's say as dry as popcorn. Say it's a white paper, whatever. If it's not entertaining, people are not consuming it. And people are not listening. Trust me, it happens if you don't have the street cred. And let's say what that means. If I've just a new guy outta out of college, and I'm, I'm talking to some seasoned industrial manufacturing professional about what they need to do. I don't have the street cred. And so they're not going to listen. They don't. And in fact, I was doing some work when I was with Price Waterhouse with other utilities. And unfortunately for me, I had that background as a journeyman lineman. I climbed the towers, I negotiated these contracts. Anyway, I had that street cred, and therefore my recommendations, my insights, my conversations were rooted in that street cred. And so if you don't have the street cred, it's hard, especially in industry and manufacturing, for people to listen or consume your content. That's, that's number two. And then
this is where it gets really challenging. I know we're all sitting there going, well, we got to sell. We've got to generate some revenue. We've got to close some deals. And so many of these these webinars, the his virtual events turn out to be sort of infomercial light, or just full on infomercial about the products, the solutions that are being served up at that time. And I I'm not, you know, not getting you just slapping them upside the head on this thing is just a fact that I think people in general are interested in solving problems interested in what is that innovative solution. And, and these are the things that I I'm struggling with. And here it is, right. And if it's to infer commercially, people are not going to listen, I don't listen to him on TV. It's just not how we roll. And and especially in an industry as a whole, that's just not how we roll. So I challenge you. First off, try to be entertaining. What does that look like, Ah, I just put myself out there, you might have an entertaining style, but I'm just telling you right now be more entertaining, people will consume your content. And then again, you're going to have to have some street cred. You just can't just roll up and say I know everything about whatever. And you don't, it'll get sniffed out and sniffed out quickly, and nobody's gonna listen to you, and you'll lose credibility. And then third, let's, I challenge you not to be infomercial ish, or infomercial light. And I understand the necessity, understand the necessity of being able to want to close deals and understand the necessity to, to communicate that feature function. Get it on it. However, I think it's all baked in. And if you're solving somebody's problem, it's all in there, and they're going to look to you for help. That's just how I think it's gonna roll. All right. One thing to put on your calendar, I had a great interview with a gentleman by the name of Paul Holland. And he is a partner with Mark 49. And my 49 is a VC firm. And what fascinates me about anything that's around financing, and venture is especially right now, if there's a need, there is a need to be able to have partners on your side that can deliver capital that is necessary for you to scale. And so we're going down that road, and we've got one I'm going to release his his conference. conversation, I want to say this Thursday. Anyway, it's going to be out there, however it's going to be it's a great, great call, and conversation. We talk a lot about a lot of things important. You need money to expand for your technology and your solutions. All right. Lee kitchen, magical dude.com He has a Disney pedigree, been there for a long time. But he takes that type of training that that incites that, that passion to innovate, and create something that's really quite, quite fascinating. And I think that you're going to like this conversation because I think, again, I think that we need more of this type of approach when it comes to industry and communicating what we do. old guys like me, maybe not but new people. Yes, they do. I guarantee you they do. Alright, enjoy this conversation with Lee. All right, Lee, welcome to industrial talk that I'm telling you right now listeners, this is gonna be a really a barnburner of a conversation because he was going to bring even the kitchen sink. How about that? Ah, good one. That you haven't heard that one before? No, never. outta here. Kitchen is his name. He is the founder, which is pretty doggone cool. I like this magical dude consulting. Yeah, thank you. Hey, our man. That's all good.
I am. I'm stoked to be here, man. About you and talk about you all the time.
I am a big deal. I am. Absolutely. Don't tell my wife that. You got it. Nearby kids because they'll blow you like, yeah, yeah, right. Anyway, for the listeners, let's get this thing are cracking. Let's give us a little background on who Lee is, and, and your pedigree. And we're gonna be talking about creativity and innovation on this particular podcast. Talk to us.
Awesome. Alright, so I am a long term Disney guy. I worked 32 years for the mouse. And it was my lifelong dream since I was six years old. I grew up in Northern California. And when I turned 18 I graduated high school and I moved to Florida on that same three day period.
You didn't go to Anaheim. No, you know, I
went there. That's where my inspiration came from. My grandparents used to take me to Disney all the time, but I was a huge Walt fan and I loved his his vision for what Epcot should have been. And so when they decided to make Epcot a theme park and said I was still a huge fan, so I wanted to be I wanted to be at Epcot. That was that was my gig. And my very first job was as an operator in the land Pavilion at Epcot. And I basically realized my lifelong dream and a team and the rest is just cake. Really?
Oh, yeah, I gotta interject. I found this out because we're gonna make it. We're gonna make it a point to go to Orlando go to Epcot. Nice typically for the drinks around the world. Yeah, Food
and Wine Festival. Yes. Awesome. Make sure you take plenty of money in my 401k, and my stock price appreciates it. Thank
you. That's all fine. We will contribute, but well worth it. I was yeah, it's
a really great event. And actually, my next step, and Disney after I worked for years in operations, I actually went into special events. And I worked on the first team that that started the Food and Wine Festival and the Flower Garden Festival. And it was funny, because we had to basically go in and tell leadership, hey, we've got this great idea for an event, but it's not gonna make any money for five years. Yeah, and they bought it. And you know what, it's the most successful event that the Walt Disney world has ever seen. And year over year, it still brings the crowds back. And it's it's really great. So I'm glad to hear you're gone.
I was so excited. When I found out about I said, Are you kidding me? at Epcot, I could wander the world? Yeah, drink and enjoy. Yep, I'm all dialed in.
You're gonna have a great time you guys. Again, just bring bring plenty of funds, because it's top of style stuff. But you can definitely clear through a lot of small glasses of wine and champagne and beer. There's a lot of beer too. So
yeah, financial expectations out. I'm game.
Alright, good. So after that, after I worked there, I went into PR for a little bit. And I helped on making kind of PR moments. And after that, I went to be a brand manager and I was a brand manager for 10 years and Strategy Manager I worked part time part at the parks. And then I worked seven years at Disney Cruise Line, an amazing product. If you've never sailed on Disney Cruise, it's definitely an amazing experience. And then my last 10 years, I worked for a group called Creative Inc, which was the internal in, in house design thinking group. So we basically help people solve challenges in a different way. But we also help train people to think creatively and make creativity a skill. And make innovation is a habit, right. And we were practitioners of it. So we got to help all different parts of the company, come up with their next big thing. And that wasn't just in parks, we also helped the Walt Disney Studios, we have Lucasfilm we have Pixar, it was a really great gig, we got to travel the world doing it too. So my last gig, it was one of the one of the most fun gigs I had and and then after I left, I took basically that skill that I learned there, and now I offered it up to businesses around the world. And basically helping people think differently about their challenges and helping train them to be more creative on a habitual basis. And basically helping people change their culture and their business.
Alright, I've got a couple of questions to pepper you with, go for it defined design thinking what does that mean?
So it's basically a structured approach to problem solving. And it's, it's at the at the heart of it is human needs. So it's human centered design, which means we're gonna figure out what our end user what our audience really needs first, before we go creating stuff. And before we make products and services or marketing campaigns for them, because so many times we make assumptions about our, our buyers, our end users are whoever they happen to be, and we create stuff that they don't need. And so identifying the need up front is is really an important part of that piece. And in order to do that, you really have to walk in your consumer shoes. Yeah.
Let's say you just sort of sit there, right? Yeah. And somebody comes up with this idea. It has to go someplace. I mean, they might always Yeah, on the street. And it's like, you know, that's important. That might be something happens in the shower, though, right? Yes. Yeah.
And that's where that's like the number one answer. When I ask people where's your best ideas?
They always say the shower, walking my dog dry, dry erase board, man. That's all you need. But But that's where it starts it. Yeah, it's just, and then you have to dive in. To see
I mean, it starts with a hypothesis. It's just like science, you start with a hypothesis or a hunch about what's going on, you go out to prove your hunch, you talk to plenty of end users, you get plenty of inspiration. And then you got to define, okay, this is what we really want to solve for here. Let's get some more inspiration for our consumers. And then we can create some ideas and once we create the ideas, let's just polish those ideas to be awesome before we go execute them. You know, again, it's just a it's a putting a little bit of a structured approach to creating something new and different, basically,
is there a I understand but is there a marketing component to that, let's like, let's say you, you go through this design, thinking does problem solving you, you really refine it, you still have to get that message out and get it out in such a way that makes sense for the consumer saying, Yeah, of course,
you go through the same process to create the marketing plan. I mean, I spent the last five years at Disney, I worked for the Alliance marketing team. And most of the brainstorms and ideation session I had was creating a marketing campaign to attract a specific audience with a with a service or a product that we came up with at another session. So yeah, definitely, definitely a marketing component to that. It's it's a different kind of brainstorm, and you come up with different ideas. But yeah, and you'll find those those marketing people that you work with, they're usually more practiced in creativity. And that's why they're given the you know, the title, Creative Director and art director and things like that, because they're practice creatives, they call them creatives, because they do it every day, right. But everybody else in the organization is equally as creative. They just don't practice it as much right? My finance guy, and when I worked for Epcot, man, he can really think creatively about how we made sure we spend that budget throughout the year, right? He didn't have creativity in his title, but man, he was super creative, you know. So so it's, it's a matter to me, it's a matter of, of, uh, getting practiced and getting out there. And a lot of people just don't practice creativity on a daily basis. Right. And I'm
just so bullish on the term creatives, because me too, in the industry, right? We, we have solutions, we're trying to solve problems. It's all great. But I think we can we, we have a decent time at identifying problems and doing maybe we have a real challenge. And it's not the slam anybody. If you're listening to it, it you can, you can chirp and call me whatever. But that doesn't matter is the creative side. Because I believe if you have an innovative solution, and add innovate it is, but if you don't deliver it in a creative way to get people to consume, or to listen, or to take every whatever you fail.
Yeah, I totally agree. Part of the part of the stuff that I do in my workshops is the pit I spent a lot of time on the actual pitch. So here it is, You created all this great stuff. But you got to get by your you know, your stakeholders, your leadership, whoever it may be, and a lot of ideas fall and fail at that point. And it's like, wow, you work three months on that idea. You want to make sure you bring it to life in a way that somebody can understand it. And when new ideas come out, they sound horrible. You know, at first, they sound terrible, you know that? I mean, every time you probably have a good idea, and you tell it to your to your wife, or whoever you get that look like what are you talking about? Am I right? Yeah, it's a humbling experience. I was Oh, yeah. But I mean, like, that's what they all even even when Uber and Netflix and all those game changers came out. They sounded stupid. I mean, who wants to ride home with a stranger from a bar? Nobody's gonna do that. My mom told me not to write with strangers, you know what I'm saying. So now, that's what I'm saying. They all sound ridiculous. But the trick is, like you said, the trick is to make sure that you do that pitch, right. And you get it, you get it pulled forward. So you can do something with it. Right?
And as Yeah, as a Disney plus guy. There is like that. Yeah, what do these documentaries or whatever. And there's a point where they're pitching, and they're, they've got the board, they're doing everything? And yeah, until the stress is just off the charts. Because
yeah, it's all or nothing. It's nothing. And that's a lot of work. And probably a lot of dollars that you spent at that point, right?
True. And I even I get all nervous. I hope
you like please don't feel I mean, that's why I love watching the Shark Tank. And you see those guys coming into Shark Tank? Some of them haven't prepped, right? And they're like, No, dude, you did not even come close to bringing that idea to life. Correct? Yeah, no, that's a good that's really important stuff. And like I said, you have to make that stuff real because it's, it's really hard for people to see your vision. And I do in my workshops, I use the example of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the producer for that show on onset, took 10,000 pounds in cash to the pitch meeting, and they played it in real life. And so he used his own money to play all of the scenarios. And it was like it made that person feel exactly how the audience was going to feel. So it was it was a great sell, because he used the real money for it. And you got to think of ways to bring that stuff to life. Otherwise, all that work down the drain, right? Wow, that then also I say no, no bad ideas, just bad timing. So I say even if your idea doesn't, doesn't have merit, that one particular time put it in a folder because it might come back up and you might be like, hey, this applies to this challenge, too. Hey, why not? No bad idea. Just bad timing.
Flavored sunflower seeds. That was my idea. Come on.
That's a great idea. But somebody took it. That's I know you sit on long enough. Someone's just gonna take it. I had one for a For a video, solar activated video screens in tombstones so that you can see the story of the person that's there, somebody took that already. I sat on that one for like four or five years, all of a sudden, I'd see him selling. I'm like, Darn it, I waited too long, I would go to the dog cemetery just for that. Yeah, because you know what you want to hear the story in my mind, you wanted to hear the story about a person. And so I thought maybe repeating video that just plays in it's powered by solar electricity. So you don't have to worry about replacing the battery anything?
Oh,
come on, let's do that.
No, that's cool. Because I got more, I got more. I'm loaded baby, the kitchen sink,
keep us it's funny too. Because, you know, my job is to basically extract ideas out of people. And I don't usually like come up with ideas until I leave a session. And then I'll have like five or six ideas towards their their cause. And that's kind of just the way my creative brain works. I get them to come up with ideas. And I come up with ideas later. But I also make the point of, hey, we came up with all the ideas, we wrote them all down on the spot, go back to the spot two days later and write down what else we have. Because inevitably, when you leave the session and the brainstorm, that's when you come up and you're in the shower, you're walking your dog or whatever, you're gonna come up with a lot more. So let's not stop at the actual physical session, go ahead and add in your two cents afterwards. Because that's there's a lot of good content that you might miss. If you don't get it,
it never stops. It never stops. You seem to me like you're you're an Ideator?
Is that what you would qualify yourself as?
Excuse me?
Are you an Ideator? Yes, we have a we have a Myers Briggs style thing in creativity that we call foresight. And it's basically divides up creativity profiles into four profiles. One is a clarifier, which means you just have to ask a bunch of questions before you get started on a problem. Another one's an IDA, which means you love to create ideas all the time. Another one is implementer. Or excuse me, a developer, which means you like to take an idea and really develop it. And then other ones implemented, which is you're on the floor operation style, folks. So it's interesting when you do that for a group of people to find out how your team is based, because if you put four clarifiers together, they'll never get anything done, because they're busy asking questions. But at the same time, if you put four ideas together, they'll come up with a bunch of ideas, but they won't get anything done after that, you know, so you got to mix it up.
I was I can't remember it. I was reading a book. Yeah. It's a book. I don't have it in front of me. But it's a book and it was really talks about innate they call them disruptors, right? Yep. No, no catalysts. Catalyst. Yeah. So I'm a catalyst. But I can't have a roomful of catalysts. Because then everything that we
need to we need to intersperse you in with the other or the other. Yes, I actually, that's one of the things I tell my clients, I'm like, please make sure that you bring those you know, think about those catalysts. Because everybody's got those catalysts in their organization. I know who they are. And I might bring them in and tell me who they are. So I can make sure that they inspire all the other people because people like having someone to kind of lead that discussion. And it really does help draw it out from both introverts and extroverts, because I want to make sure both both people, both styles have a way to get their ideas. But having those catalysts come and be there upfront is a great way to make sure that everybody kind of mixes it's the same way, Scott is if you're having a party, you got to invite a few of those people for the party, because they're the ones that are gonna keep the party going. You know,
that's why I'm always hired out. Yeah, I
mean, party. That's why you're invited to the big event. Scott, you are that part you are the catalyst. You gotta keep that up, though. You keep going to great events have to
bring me to a wedding. I'm on there, man. Yeah. First on the dance
floor. My wife, actually I do I do a workshop that's called party your way to great ideas. Like I do a metaphorical comparison between a brainstorm and a party. And you really need the exact same components. You need the right people in the room, you need to drive the conversation, you need to monitor the arc of the party and make sure you hit the right notes at the right time. And you need to have an after party, which is you know, let's get together and see what we talked about, you know, and then sometimes the After After Party,
say I love this approach. And you're just speaking my language, of course, you're speaking it in such a way that is synced as opposed to me being all over the place page. Yeah, I got your fan driving my daughter crazy, or my wife crazy. Anyway, let me just sort of backtrack a little bit over, you talked about one of the most key component is like this pitch, give me sort of a structure of a good pitch.
In my mind, a good pitch has a an analogous or metaphorical way to describe your idea that somebody can get. So it's taking something familiar, and, excuse me comparing it to something unfamiliar. That's one thing. Yeah. Another thing is his passion and succinctness. There's so many people that pitch every last little detail, and you really have to get to the point really quickly, because a lot of times your executive team, you know, you're pitching to your EVP or his SVP or whatever, they don't have time they got they give you five minutes or 15 minutes fighting for the time that you need is important, but they might not give it to you, right. So making sure that you're succinct, and also making sure that you kind of took them on the quick consumer journey of how you got there and identifying upfront identifying that that need and what you're solving for. Because it's hard for them not put themselves in their consumer shoes, when they might not be the audience, right? They're not the consumer. So you have to get them to feel like the end user, the consumer just a little bit, so they can understand what it is that you're trying to pitch that solves that need, that a lot of people fail on that because the the executive is not even close to the target audience. So they have no understanding of what's going on, right. And so you have to get them to feel like the consumer feels just for a brief moment. And then and then bring it back. And that's all about storytelling, good storytelling, is really how you get people to, to sway on your ideas is bringing that story to life. Good. And going beyond words, I always say visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, using all three of those things to make sure that because the audience that you're pitching to, you might, you know, like, numbers and, and words better than another person might like pretty pictures, and another person might need to see and smell and touch something significant that has to do with your product or something like that, right. So keeping that stuff in mind to
a year you're spot on. I I like the metaphor in it. And the reason is, and maybe it's just me, if somebody pitches me something, but uses a metaphor, I'm all in and it's up, it's an, it's a great way to quickly understand it, right, switch job done. And then you can sit there and you've got it move forward. And I like I think there are plenty of books out there about storytelling. And if you're not a good storyteller, grab a book, and read how to do that, because that's super powerful as well. And, and in industry, we we tend to be very passionate about our widget, and then we'll dive deep into the code. And then we'll dive deeper into the API's that connect that code. Yeah, by that time, it's just fine.
If you're speaking to the API, the code person, but most of the time, a leader is not that, you know, because they're, they might be twice removed from that. So you have to come up with a way to speak their language, you know,
so, so know, your so know your audience. Yeah,
that's an important piece.
That's very good. Now, I always talk about education, collaboration and innovation, because I like education, get a good book, figure out how to storytel to collaborate, like you and others who look at the world differently solve problems in a unique way. But it's important to have that dialogue, have that conversation. Absolutely.
And also, you know, what's got my idea is great, but my idea is only going to be made better when you add your two cents, right? Because I don't even know where you're coming from. But when we put our, our great stuff together, it's gonna be better trust me. You know, I know there's a lot of people that come up with individual ideas, and they're geniuses and all that kind of stuff. But I have seen in my line of work, that collaborate collaboration always leads to better outcomes. Always, always, always. I will, I will, you know, that's one of the top things that I will say is, I have great ideas, I have an idea, but man, you have great ideas, too. And we put them together, it's gonna be monstrous going to be great.
It is an interesting thing to begin to embrace. And I think that COVID has really shine the light on the necessity to collaborate. Yeah, COVID We brought our I always say we brought our C game, whatever it might be. And yeah, really tight lipped. And we held our cards close to the vest, and we had to switch it up really quickly to did we ever did heads. I don't have the answers, what do I do? And so that's outside of all the degree of the COVID. That's a positive thing that took place with COVID.
The law challenged us to kind of rethink how we, you know, are absolutes, because you know, there's an absolute that a fancy restaurant couldn't provide delivery food, oh, there's no way we could ever do that. That's not what we do. And so all of a sudden, I'm getting delivery from the fanciest restaurant in town, and it tastes delicious. So they overcame it. But they you know, before when they're closed mind, they wouldn't have been able to do it. But out of necessity, they had to come up with something.
Right. That's a great analogy, because you're absolutely right. It didn't take long for them to say, yeah, yeah, come by my curve.
I remember when I was at Disney, we one of my bosses would always say there's no way we can have brainstorms over video, they have to be there in person they have to have to have to, and I was like, well, actually, I mean, I could do it. I just had to make sure that there was someone like me a facilitator on the other side. And so when I started becoming where I had to do all this stuff over zoom, it was like, Oh, I know exactly how to do this because I totally violated my boss's wishes and did. And we did it right. We all got together virtually. And yes, I always call the obvious out right away. Hey, here's the elephant the room. Yes, we're not in person. I'm sorry. But let's act like we are right Let's bring our in real life presence as much as possible to this little video stream. This is not a YouTube video, it's not a kitty cat video, this is you and me interacting, just as if we're sitting in a coffee shop. So please, you know, don't put a bag over your head and show up to the meeting with your video off. You know, like, you want to walk into a meeting with a bag over your head with you know, so you know, let's all show up. And let's act like we're actually together. And I know it's not perfect, but we got to do it. And we're gonna come up with some great stuff because of it. So there you have it.
Alright, so we're talking also about innovation, right? Why is innovation, that that creative energy that could exist in your organization that needs to exist in your organ must exist? Important for innovation? Why is innovation important to a business?
I just think of, you know, Blockbuster man, Blockbuster was refused to innovate. And here comes Reed Hastings and offers to sell him this, sell them the great idea of no late fees, and unlimited selection, and all that kind of stuff. And they just couldn't see past the end of their nose. And so it's, it's hard to be complacent in today's world, because somebody else will replace you, somebody else's, aren't your consumers already having that dialogue, and they're gonna find something else. So you have to stay ahead as much as possible. And you can't rest on your laurels, right, you have to just constantly challenge ourselves. And if you're standing around saying, this is the way we've always done it, we're always going to do it like this. It's it's a tough gig, because you might not be there anymore. And I see I see a couple of organizations that really could use this one is golf, another one is boating. And another one is, is alcoholic beverages. Now they did they didn't stretch themselves to create the cinnamon whiskey and stuff like that. They did pretty good. But I mean, I haven't really seen innovation in those industries in in as much as I'd want to, you know, like, like, fundamental changes. You know,
a there's, I'll tell you something about whiskey. There's one guy up in Cleveland, Ohio, and he is applying, you got, there's the chemistry side that, okay, you got to produce the alcohol, it's just the donation, whatever. And but he to speed up the the aging process of the Spirit, he pushes, puts it into pressure vessels. Now it's up. Yeah. So
he like a instapot, which was instapot really wasn't an innovation, think about the instapot. All it is, is a pressure cooker. And they identified a need that that the audience needed the target audience needed, which was something really quick. Well, it's something that your grandmother used was really quick, but it was a hassle, because you had to clamp it down and had the thing and it could explode at any time. So they made it safe. And they made it easy. And what did they do? They reintroduced the pressure cooker to a whole new audience that really needed it.
And I that's a great example. Thank you. I loaded in a big way. So but No, his pressure vessel fluctuates. And it's, and so it takes a little wood pieces, which you can use anyone. So it takes a little wood pieces, it makes them like into little sponges, suns in the alcohol speeds it up. That's interesting,
but I love so I love hearing stories like that, because that's really us. You know, many companies would call that a renovation and not an innovation but one little tiny thing could that you think is a renovation could lead to an innovation that you don't even know about yet. You know, that's you i I've worked for a couple of clients that ask for just renovations because they don't have budget for a complete innovation. But what happens is they create a renovation to an existing product, which turns out to be a brand new product that doesn't exist. They're like that's an innovation, something new and novel that people want.
So, so. So I hear what you're saying lean in. And I think there has to be a formal process within the organization that is focused on that innovation, that dreaming that that that creativity, of the better life going forward, whatever it might be. Yep. But it has to be formalized, because many companies don't they get into trouble. This is how they do it. Bla bla bla bla bla,
and your ideas get lost to like, nobody knows where to put a lot. And there's, you know, there's frontline people that have the greatest ideas, but they're never heard from and so what good is doing you unless you can hear from those people who are living in every day. You know, so I agree wholeheartedly. There has to be some sort of structure to make sure those ideas can can see the light of day, you know,
especially now, I the way technology exists today. There's there there is more of a yes, there's a solution as opposed to no we can't because I think technology is in such a way that will help facilitate greater creativity. If you just are In the game, and you formalize that process I, yeah, I agree with you 100%. And
also, in my mind, also, you have to, you have to own it. And if you, if you found it in, it doesn't work, like if you're a leader of an organization, and you say, Oh, we're gonna do some innovation, creativity, and then we're going to put the box back up on the shelf and go back to the way we normally do stuff. You're not really only you have to, like, you have to walk the walk and talk to talk, you know, and you have to do it repeatedly. You can't just do a one time. That's why I always talk in my workshops that you have to somehow make this a habit. And you have to challenge yourself on a daily basis to make sure that this stays creativity stays a habit. It's not just something you pull off a shelf for a one time brainstorm.
Yeah, I, I can't support you even. I mean, this is amazing. Because creativity is key. Yeah, especially if you're gonna collaborate, if that is a driver for you as an organization to solve problems, then the necessity for design think has to be a part of it. Creativity, Innovation, and he can't keep at it. You can't just say, Oh, he didn't do anything that day, no big deal, no big deal. You've got to be, just stick with it, and be in the game and make and
even if it fails to you have to be ready to accept a few failures, because it's not every one of them is going to be great, right? So you just have to keep trying.
That's a whole other conversation. I know.
I was like, we're already in the 40 minutes here. You got a lot of time today
accepted. Well, then let's just wrap. Now, I love this because it's it communicates the necessity to innovate and to bring that innovation to succeed and create a business of resiliency. yet but the analogy of blockbuster, absolutely. Here today. Gone Tomorrow. Yeah, no, it's not too bad. Yeah. If they didn't have the capital to make it happen, they did. They just got
they got arrogant, we are way better. This is how we do it.
Yes. Put that on a shelf. Put that out.
That's a whole other conversation. I
gotta hear that arrogance away from it. Alright, so you're speaking my language. And you're probably inspiring some listeners out there, get out of it. And I see just one second, you got the inspiration report. Speaking of inspiring, tell us a little bit about that. Tell us how we can get a hold of you.
Okay, so you can get a hold of me through my website, which is magical dude, calm. Once a month. good buddy of mine, Shawn. And I do a report called The Inspiration report. And basically, we pick out about 15 Different inspiring innovations, product services that are happening in the world. And we present it and talk about it, we generate a lot of dialogue in the chat. So we do that on my Twitch channel, which hopefully that you'll post there. It's also on magical dude calm, you can check that out. And yeah, we hope to, you know, really the one thing I tell people is that you have to get fresh input. And you have to make sure that you you again, make that a habit of going outside your comfort zone to get that input. Because when it comes time to collaborate and make connections, if you can't just stick with the stuff that you know, you know. So what we basically say if you can't go anywhere else for inspiration, come see us. It's an hour 1130 Eastern, the first Friday of every month, this month will be on October 29. So we're gonna do a special Halloween episode. So
that's that one. Wow. So listeners, you actually you
get to be on the mailing list, Scott, because everybody, every time we do a podcast, you immediately get on the mailing list. So
yay, I'm always gonna you know what's interesting, I read them, I want to know, get get on out there. I want to see how people are approaching the market, what they're communicating, and how they're communicating it. And the good and it's the good, bad and the ugly. If I don't understand if I don't see how this is good. I want to see why and, and not duplicated or or try to improve it or whatever it might be. That to me is important and good. That's, that's just me. So sign up for dog on. They're not spam. It's just information. Figure it out, man. That's yeah, yeah. lead to a mailing list. Alright listeners. That's the kitchen. He did bring in. I mean, just truth bombs. God, that was good, man.
Good. I had a great time. You're a great guy. And I really believe in what you're doing. So
I'm a great guy. Do not come to me and say, Scott, you're not a great guy. Because let's let's be creative out there. Let's be innovative out there. Let's collaborate. Let's educate. You can educate it's it's got the worldwide limit your dog got fingertips. Yeah, figure this out. No excuses, no excuses, and be a business of resilience and reach out to a bank. I can't believe magical dude URL was available.
I know me there I was totally floored Well, I was like, magical dude is available. Yeah. And I buy every permutation of a tube that's gonna do that us that calm down. Like crazy.
Did you get dude magical?
I did not. But I was pretty happy with that score. i It was funny too, because I sent him like, I have three WhatsApp threads that I'd send it like in all caps. And everyone's like, what is the big deal? Like you don't understand?
No URLs? Yeah,
well, so I thought I'd have to negotiate it for $9,000 and someone got paid. I paid $12 for it. So
that's another conversation. Yeah. All right, Lee, you were absolutely wonderful.
Thanks, man. It's a pleasure. And whenever you want to talk about it again, you just give me a call. I'll come in, I got plenty more stories. So
alright, listeners, we're gonna wrap it up on the other side. So if you're not gonna have all Lee's contact information, his website and anything else we can probably put in there. We're gonna be posting his there's a podcast he has there. He's got a video. We got a lot of stuff about Lee. So go out to industrial talk.com You can find out more. So stay tuned, we will be right back.
You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.
Alright, enjoy that conversation. As you can tell, Lee brought the goods to the house. And I'm just telling you right now you've got to get out of your comfort zone, you just do. You can't have conventional thinking, No, do not run away from it. And and really try to get people if you're in the business of trying to get people to listen to what you have to say, You got to be entertaining, you got to have the street cred. And you definitely can't be an infomercial, you got to help them solve problems. That says sort of the secret sauce right here. Go out again, magical dude.com reach out to him, you're not going to be disappointed. I guarantee you. Alright. Let's push our envelope. Let's stop being conventional. Let's start being somewhat disruptive in the way we we communicate our value. I want you to hang out with people who are bold, brave and Daring Greatly find them. Give them a part of your posse, whatever you need to do, and and you'll see that you're going to be changing the world. You're going to see that greater value is going to be coming to you bottom line. All right. Thank you very much for joining us real talk. We're gonna have another great conversation right around the corner.
About the author, Scott
I am Scott MacKenzie, husband, father, and passionate industry educator. From humble beginnings as a lathing contractor and certified journeyman/lineman to an Undergraduate and Master’s Degree in Business Administration, I have applied every aspect of my education and training to lead and influence. I believe in serving and adding value wherever I am called.
