Tale of Two Cities

Nashville son in-law, Tom Davis, was just named Art Director of the year 2020 by the American Advertising Federation Nashville for the pro-bono design work on the We Are Nashville campaign which was awarded 19 Gold and 41 Silver Addys.

We Are Nashville is a privately funded, multi-year exploration of the New Nashville designed to foster understanding of who we are, inspire conversations that help us get to know one another, and take simple but meaningful actions that help our neighbors and preserve the special character of the city. For the story go to https://www.wearenashville.com/about/.

Nashville has many monikers that provide a clue to its complex character—Music City, Smashville, Buckle of the Bible Belt, Nashvegas, Cashville,The Protestant Vatican, and with over 20 Universities and colleges it has also earned the title Athens of the South.

Asheville son and daughter in-law, Stephen and Robin Collins, report they are on schedule to reopen Applewood Manor Bed and Breakfast Inn after major remodeling and upgrading. Part of the upgrade includes Applewood’s website, https://www.applewoodmanor.com, with a section devoted to stories about that unique city. Just as Nashville has a story to tell that Tom Davis and team put into the We are Nashville campaign, so does Asheville, North Carolina have its own story to tell and I just posted story number seventy-eight in that series and there are more are on the way. These are stories about things to do and see in Asheville, about people and events in the life of the city, its mysteries, ghost stories and tall tales. Asheville has been called many things—weirdest, happiest, quirkiest place in America, Santa Fe of the East, New Age Capital of the World, Paris of the South, Beer City USA, Most Haunted, Sky City and others. It has many secrets, mysteries, and legends—some factual, some alleged, some exaggerated and some just plain lies. Writing about the stories to put Asheville character on display has been a fun project.

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 For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and eBook editions are available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. Be sure to check out the latest Tom Collins Novel, Beyond Visual Range on Amazon.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.

Applewood Manor, Asheville NC

My Son, Stephen, and wife Robin have just become innkeepers after purchasing the Applewood Manor in Asheville, North Carolina. More than a hundred years old the Applewood Manor is one of the longest continuously operating Asheville bed & breakfast inns. While this is their first step into full service inn keeping, they are not new to the recreational property business. They own a beautiful French country villa in Roussillon, La Petite Colline de Roussillon, for those looking to vacation in Provence.

Applewood has its own standalone appeal as an historic bed & Breakfast in the breathtaking mountains of North Carolina, but it owes a measure of its popularity to Asheville as a destination—historic buildings and architecture, home of some of history’s most dynamic personalities and beautiful mountain vistas. The mountains of Asheville are the oldest in the country. And, then there is the mystical side of Asheville. Psychics from all over the world travel to the area drawn by  what they believe is a paranormal “vortex” of energy. Many say that the area draws that energy from the spiritual residue of ancient Native Americans who lived and died in those mountains. Then there is the blood spilled into its grounds during the Civil War. Certainly, Asheville has seen more than its share of mysterious events and deaths.  In fact, some say that Applewood sets in the most haunted place in the country.  

With Stephen and Robin at the helm, visitors can expect a wonderful experience with or without accompanying ghost.  Knowing them, you be well fed, offered great wines, giving an opportunity to learn new things or improve existing skills. And if you are a mind to, Robin will  have you on a tennis court or Stephen will have you on a bike pedaling up and down the areas mountains.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and eBook editions are available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. Be sure to check out the latest Tom Collins Novel, Beyond Visual Range on Amazon.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.

Creating Something Out of Nothing

It has been a few years since I first read Kevin O’Connor’s book, The Map of Innovation, about creating something out of nothing. Kevin is not just anyone. By the time he wrote The Map of Innovation, he had already founded three successful companies and was working on the next two. I know him best as the founder of DoubleClick as the dot-com industry erupted on the world economy. DoubleClick has since been acquired, but it is still the technology behind those targeted ads on the Internet.

While it sounds elementary, O’Connor says something very profound in this book. He writes:

 

All businesses, no matter what business you are in, really boil down to answering three questions:

1. Who are your customers?
2. What are their needs?
3. How can you solve those needs most efficiently?

Kevin’s book is about his process for answering those questions. It is about how to generate ideas and select the right ones to pursue for success and wealth. He calls his process BPT or Brainstorming Prioritization Technique. My son Stephen, the CEO of Bazaarvoice and previously the chief financial and technology officer at DoubleClick, uses a variation on BPT. I have used my own approach developed independently over the years under the umbrella of The Language of Excellence. I refer to my approach as the “Consensus Process” but the process is similar to BPT and the objectives are the same.

Here is Kevin’s BPT checklist:

• Get the right people in the room.
• Define the problem (question or issue) carefully.
• Spend up to twenty minutes brainstorming, no discussion.
• Explain and talk about the ideas until everyone is clear on what they are.
• Combine similar ideas.
• Number the ideas.
• Divide the total number of ideas by three. This is the number of votes each person gets.
• Only one vote per idea.
• Circle the top three to six ideas.
• Ignore everything else.

I use a simple visual model for the Consensus Process:

O’Connor’s book was published in 2003 and print copies are still available, but your best bet to get this powerful tool for creating something out of nothing is to download the $14.99 Kindle version from Amazon.

There is a caveat. When writing about strategic planning, I always emphasize that the only sound “plan” is a plan to change the “plan.” Objectives and goals are merely temporary targets based on inaccurate assumptions. So planning is a continuous process. With that in mind, you have to keep asking O’Connor’s three questions repeatedly to get it right. You have to keep refining your answers based on new knowledge, changes in the environment in which you operate, and new assumptions about the future. How well you answer the three questions will determine the degree of your success.

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I will be joining authors Stacy Allen, Chester Campbell, and Lane Stone on Friday, August 23, 2013, to discuss how available everyday technology, including the smart phone, helps and hinders the fictional modern-day sleuth. The Killer Nashville session is scheduled for 2:00 pm. In my book The Claret Murders, the 2010 flood is used to confound the central character’s usual access to technology.

 

Mysteries by Tom Collins include Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest, The Claret Murders. For signed copies go to http://store.markrollinsadventures.com. Print and eBook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. The eBook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore.