Did that really happen in New York?

Business meetings after business meetings flow. They don't stop start. They go from one to another and on the way, you find that somewhere as you look up at the skyline or at the Starbucks in front of you, there is a pearl of inspiration that just might change your world.

First up I met with one of the most successful business people in America to discuss charity of all things. How do you build a business incubator that is highly successful, creating jobs in rural communities. This guy has done it well, for profit though, and there are a lot of lessons to learn. 

Education is key: Providing scholarships and college education is paramount. Training across certain disciplines like software testing, outsourcing, and business processes has proven to be their strengths in enabling 400 plus people to be employed.

For us in Charters Towers, at The World Incubator, there is certainly some online training and perhaps in the marketing automation space, we can make this happen, except we cannot find staff that have marketing degrees that want to move to Charters Towers which is a big deal. Other areas are social media strategy development and execution; all the mundane things that take time. Wages are cheaper up there, so it would make sense. Potentially with the two, we could employ up to 50 people over 2 years. But no takers as yet. This is a hard slog. We need to focus on schools first and then move forward into working with Universities. 

Then there was inspiration from meetings with other companies on what they are doing from a content perspective. We certainly can be doing a lot more than what we are doing today and expanding our education in this field to other marketers.

Of course, there are those who have new innovations that blow your mind. Having 5 minutes with these people is like winning a lottery.

And then there is New York. The food, the atmosphere, the company, the streets, the taxi's and now Uber of course, the hotels, the galleries - everything is just so exhilaring that I cannot describe but I know others that have been there know exactly what I am talking about.

On the last morning, we did a photoshoot with world-famous photographer Tommy Mendes. Of course, the unedited pictures are more glamorous than anything I have had taken elsewhere. How I love the inspiration that comes from people like this and watching them operate.

Now it's time to put this all into action; into Marketing Eye, Eskrape and my passion project, The World Incubator.

Life is good.

P.S. Lesson to everyone going to meetings or communicating with anyone - never have the last word. Listening is far more effective.