Consulting Strategies

CONSULTING

THE JOY OF COOKING UP NEW IDEAS

What better outlet for a firm with unbounded energy and love for a good challenge!

As communications consultants, we delight in helping organizations find better ways to get information from A to B...

Or in some cases, from A to a hive of B's.

Whether it is a creative plan to inform, float a new idea, change perceptions, get others to buy, or simply inspire.

We love a good strategy.

I THINK. THERFORE I AM WHAT I YAM

Chuck Goldstone's career philosophy is rooted in the combined wisdom of two of history's more influential icons, Descartes and, of course, Popeye.

Goldstone thinks for a living. That's who he is.

If you give his brain a little time and encouragement, it is likely to come up with answers to all kind of problems.

Chuck built a career of musing-for-hire, renting out the non-life-supporting portion of his brain to clients who can put its happily firing synapses to work for them.*

Spewing Ideas. New perspectives.

Bringing order from content-chaos.

Consultant. Problems solver. Strategic explorer.

En-visionary.

Always looking for the next tough project, his neurotransmitters are spring-loaded and his are axons at-the-ready.
	*	Chuck regrets that certain areas of his brain, specifically his hypothalamus, amygdaline, and pituitary, which control so-called critical functions such as breathing and consciousness, are no longer available for rental at this time.

MESSAGE + AUDIENCE + MEDIUM

A game plan, roadmap, blueprint, treatment, battle scheme ---pick the analogy that makes you feel most comfortable. It's the most important step in any project.

If a project stumbles, over-eats a budget, or hangs up on "good" but doesn't quite make it to "great," chances are, it needed a better-conceived strategy.

We are experts in message development, audiences, and communications conduits, and know how to combine them to achieve extraordinary results.

The right message, to the right audience, delivered at the right time, through the most appropriate and most cost-effective medium---whether to people one-at-a-time or millions-at-once. As your creative partners, we find novel approaches by:
	•	Clearly seeing, dissecting, and analyzing problems
	•	Using best practices acquired over the years to adapt solutions to your particular problem
	•	Inventing new ways when none of the old ones work
	•	Providing more than one alternative when possible

All while answering to the harsh mistress of budget and the often impossible demands of deadlines.

THERE IS NO "ME" IN "TEAM"
WAIT. ACTUALLY THERE IS

Think of us as your own. We like to feel like we are part of a client's team.

We take the time to learn the ins and outs of the content, but retain enough distance so we can stay objective and ask difficult or even naive questions in the quest to discover the best--and not always obvious--approach.

We may not be subject-matter experts. We don't have to be, because you are. But we know the right questions to ask and how to structure even the most complex outlines. We can bring clarity to not only projects where are content-savvy, but where the content is foreign.

AGILITY AND THE HARVEST OF SERENDIPITY

Few would disagree that a project is more likely to fail without a thoughtful strategy.

But a good one must also remain malleable, able to flex and stretch in response to change.

A project that satisfies current needs is probably a decent one. But the difference between decent and great is agility--a project's capacity to anticipate and gracefully respond to future challenges.

The process of creating a great strategic plan could certainly benefit from a little clairvoyance.

But where access to a soothsayer is unavailable, maybe just a planning process that is thorough, comprehensive, and a tad visionary.

Because we have done this so many times before, we can streamline the process and help you avoid costly and time-consuming pitfalls.

And we know how to keep a program organic, so it can grow as you as you do, anticipate future challenges, and take advantage of new opportunities.

Most important, to be agile means knowing how reap the unsolicited benefits of serendipity--those happy surprises and creative accidents, gifts from the Heavens, that the audience will later think had been ingeniously planned all along.

A SIMPLE PASSION FOR THE EXTRAORINDARY

It's our belief that no matter how well we did last time, by applying a little more cognitive and creative muscle, we can do even better the next.

Maybe it's a pathology, maybe a little neurotic compulsion, but we'd feel a little antsy if we didn't give anything but our very best and didn't think we are just a tiny bit better than we were yesterday.

We can look you straight in the eye and say we pledge to work as hard as we can to make your project the most effective and creative one we have developed to date.