Kari Havir, Eco Marketing Change Agent

I was interviewed by Channel 11 News today about the weather and I’m on the embedded video clip below both at the beginning and the end. I earnestly do love a good snow storm. Check it out.

As someone who became an official SkyWarn Spotter and was the only one in class to raise a hand when the instructor asked if anyone had ever thought about becoming a storm chaser, I guess it just comes naturally to love weather of all sorts.

Thanks Rena for including me in your story. I enjoyed contributing my view.

Have to dash… another gorgeous day awaits! We had snow this morning and now the sun is peeking through. Minnesota has the coolest variety of weather.

News Channel 11, interview, Kari Havir, News, spring, TV, video, weather

The solar-powered website I rebranded and developed for Inner Earth Energy, an innovative geothermal company, launched on a 100% solar powered web server. Talk about a company walking their eco-friendly talk and you are talking about Inner Earth Energy (IEE).

IEE’s mission statement is “Modeling Economic Growth Through Environmental Sustainability” and it shows. Everyone in the company is continually “breaking new ground” in this effort in everything from their product and service offerings, business practices, to the business relationships they develop and nurture. Their environmental mission doesn’t stop when the work day ends. Not surprisingly, IEE CEO Dave Sheild has installed a geothermal system to heat and cool his home. He paired the system with prairie restoration-oak savanna grasses which are planted over his rain garden/French drains. The eco-friendly, decorative grasses mean no lawn mowing in the rain garden and the French drains enhance the residential geothermal installation’s efficiency. IEE was so excited about launching their new website because of the way it both empowers them and because of its green hosting that they decided to launch ahead of having all content completed. This is quite similar to what we did at Marketing Eco when we launched our own solar-powered website. Because the content management system is so easy to use, filling in any thin spots is a breeze. IEE’s “energy” in both the geothermal and enthusiastic sense is marvelous to behold. Here’s a little more about IEE and their mission straight from the source: Modeling Economic Growth Through Environmental Sustainability We are committed to large-scale, nationwide deployment of sustainable energy solutions. Our primary focus is on making the the U.S. building sector more energy efficient with Geothermal Heat Pump (GHP) systems playing a central role. The U.S. building sector accounts for 40% of primary U.S. energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Industrial and Transportation sectors are second and third in order of energy usage. GHP technology alone can realize 50%-60% savings on building energy usage making it one of the highest impact, deep savings solutions available. “There are immediate and significant savings in energy efficiency and conservation. Energy efficiency is not just low-hanging fruit; it is fruit lying on the ground. For example, we have the potential to make buildings 80% more efficient with investments that will pay for themselves in less than fifteen years. Buildings consume 40% of the energy we use, and a transition to energy efficient buildings will cut our carbon emissions by one third.” — Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy and Nobel Laureate in Physics, from 2009 Harvard Commencement Speech. One of our goals is to get private sector investors to drive the sustainability movement by providing structured financing made possible through project development and aggregation. Investors should be able to earn an attractive return while simultaneously supporting the rebuilding of America’s energy infrastructure. Linking sustainability with compelling economic incentives is the key to large-scale deployment of solutions that can ultimately end America’s dependence on fossil fuels and meet the required GHG emissions reductions. Check out www.InnerEarthEnergy.com and see for yourselves. Stay tuned! We will follow up this launch announcement in the coming weeks with IEE’s feedback on their new website. As they dig into their new paperless content management portal and get a feel for posting to their forum which will auto-tweet directly to Twitter, we expect their enthusiasm about social media will continue to grow. We can integrate their website’s auto-posts to LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace as well.

Clean Energy, Sustainability

Case Study Highlight

The brand identity and website I developed for The American P. I. as Marketing Eco is fully integrated so that media casts automatically feed to iTunes, Blubrry, YouTube and many other podcast and videocast websites in one click of the mouse button.

Here’s a peek at The American P. I. look and feel:

We designed the logo, website, and one page speaking sheet for Paul in a vibrant range of oranges and blues.

The American P. I. purpose:

With The American P. I. website, Paul Jaeb, CEO of the Heartland Investigative Group, set out to create captivating podcast content that would provide helpful and educational information to fellow investigators. His content focuses on everything from the business issues of running a P. I. firm, to legislative issues, continuing education, networking and investigative associations, and of course investigation techniques and concerns. On each podcast episode Paul interviews several seasoned investigative colleagues from across the nation to get at the issues facing private investigators in various geographical areas and investigative niches.

Here’s a peek at Paul Jaeb, The American P. I.:

Paul Jaeb, CEO

Heartland Investigative Group

Paul Jaeb is 20 year veteran private investigator. He is the founder and CEO of Heartland Investigative Group, a premier investigative and security consulting firm based in Minneapolis.

Paul is a founding member of the Minnesota Association of Private Investigators and is the current National Director of the National Association of Legal Investigators.

Paul also sits on the Executive Committee of Investigative and Security Professionals for Legislative Action, and is active in ASIS International and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

In addition, Paul speaks at corporate events, professional associations, and private events bringing his experienced perspective and engaging style as a key note or breakout session for organizations across the nation.

Seamless, easy-to-use, and powerful website technology:

One-click integration isn’t only for Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn these days. We’re really excited how this website plugs The American P. I. into all the big podcast and video media feeds. What’s even more thrilling is that one-click integration can easily be built into every one of our client websites.

Here’s the skinny on podcast recording sessions with guests all over the nation work:

Podcasting session are recorded locally, yet guests on the podcast episodes call in from all over the nation with a clear recording session thanks to Skype.com’s free, 24/7 Internet calling features.

Check out The American P. I. website here.

Stay tuned! Down the road we’ll check back with Paul and feature feedback from The American P. I. on his website, podcasts, and further interactive plans in the works. Happy podcast listening!

Educational, Private Investigator

John Robert (Bob) Browning, Jr. launched ISS Consulting to address the growing need to simultaneously renovate company processes and culture to boost the bottom line and gain market share. He needed both a memorable company brand and a flexible website format to show how his process works and explain the ISS Consulting difference.

As Marketing Eco, I developed a strong logo for Bob’s new company that embodies his vision for his company utilizing the best of breed brand identity guidelines. The website I developed for Bob uses a modular format to give a visitors both an organized and visual walk through of his process using Wordpress and the modular sticky post method of organizing and displaying content and a blog-style back end content management portal.

About ISS Consulting:

Today, many companies large and small struggle to gain a competitive edge, failing to capitalize on the fact that they possess a vast, virtually untapped resource within their company walls. Companies with horizontally structured processes often overlook the individual work ethic and the innate human need to be both productive and responsible. By comparison, companies with productivity / gain share programs demonstrate over and over that true employee involvement contributes significantly to the whole health of the company by any measure.

“I founded ISS Consulting because I felt a burning need to help employees by making their working life far more than a simple pay check. Work is the opportunity to make a difference, to express individual creativity and innovation,” said Browning, President and Founder of ISS Consulting. “The ISS process, based on The Scanlon Plan developed by Joseph N. Scanlon in the 1930’s, has been proven to work in any company committed to its people. By tapping unutilized employee resources, the companies I have worked with, and others who believe in true employee involvement utilizing the Scanlon philosophy, see significant positive differences in their organization’s ability to compete, employees report happier and healthier work experiences, customer satisfaction improves, which all leads to a stronger bottom line and improved job security. I cannot think of anything else I’d rather do than help companies by involving their constituents in a way that benefits the customer, investor, and employee.”

Mr. Browning’s mission with ISS provides a proven means of company transformation through a tailored three step process. The process begins with an analysis of a company’s culture to assess potential for embracing gain share. Next, Mr. Browning and his team perform a deep analysis that lays the groundwork for fine-tuning the balance between customers, investors, and employees and creates a benchmark to measure change. After that, Mr. Browning uses over 30 years of experience across a broad array of business niches and company cultures to build a dynamic model for participation that includes productivity councils overseen and guided by a screening committee.

By helping companies implement a model tailored specifically to their company and culture, Mr. Browning has been able to help companies realize dramatic, measurable improvement in productivity and profitability while simultaneously providing their employees with higher levels of job satisfaction and a constant desire to produce at the highest level of efficiency.

“The Scanlon Plan is an innovative management process for total organization development. It consists of a set of assumptions about human motivation and behavior, general principles for the management of organizations based on those assumptions, and specific procedures for implementing these principles,” said Carl Frost, author, Changing Forever.

All organization leaders have the ability to light a match and tap the multitude of talented resources within their employees or remain in productivity darkness. ISS Consulting is well positioned to provide that match and help companies create an ongoing plan of participation and involvement for the long-term success of the enterprise.

Visit the ISS Consulting website >

Leadership Leadership, servant leadership, website launch, WordPress

I was extremely thrilled to announce the launch of Tami Briggs’ new book, Women as Healers: Voices of Vibrancy, and the website I developed as Marketing Eco, created for Tami to help take the book on an exciting social media journey.

Tami found the fittingly vibrant photo that graces the cover of the book and companion CD and Marketing Eco designed the website header and companion graphics to compliment the book’s design and further communicate Tami’s vision.

The easy-to-use website content management portal has been pivotal, enabling Tami and the talented developer already managing her previously-created shopping cart secure access to add content and code at any time, from anywhere with Internet access.

What the Book is About

Here’s the scoop about the book’s content straight from the Women as Healers website along with an iPhone snapshot of the book and CD just after it arrived at Marketing Eco:

Women as Healers: Voices of Vibrancy is Tami Briggs’ newest book. From Nebraska to the Netherlands, India to Iran, and Serbia to South Carolina (and many other U.S. states), the 31 women featured are all gifted healers. As they share their stories, they give us many insights on how to help heal the world. Some work for corporations and institutions; many of them are self-employed. They are from all walks of life, doing extraordinary things to help make our world a better place. In this book you will read about life-changing experiences from authors, artists, consultants, nurses, educators, leaders, and therapists – creators all.

Many of the contributing authors have suffered great tragedies and losses, yet they demonstrate to all of us resiliency and great strength. They are pioneers – powerful, spiritual and spirited. You will likely see yourself in many of these women’s heart-warming and touching stories. As they reflect on and share their journeys of healing, they model taking risks, beating the odds, being of great service, making significant differences in the world, and living their passions.

A Marketing Eco Reader Experience

When the book and CD arrived by post yesterday, Kari Havir (Principal, Marketing Eco) dashed off with a beaming face and the copy of the book to her favorite garlic-scented restaurant, La Grolla. Kari had everything positive to say about her shared reading experience. Here’s the scoop:

I was so exceedingly thrilled when the book arrived that I just had to show it off immediately. I had a vision of delving into the book with a plate of my favorite cuisine and the happy chatter of contented people surrounding me. I know, you’re probably thinking you’d rather snuggle in under a warm lap blanket and read at home, however there was something about this particular book that made me want to share the experience while in the moment.

I sat down with a glass of wine and La Grolla’s marvelous bread and started reading. One of my very favorite La Grolla people, Rachel, waited on my table last night. When I confessed with a wobbly smile that I was so moved by the first story I was reading, she only half-jokingly gave me a few drink napkins just in case I needed them. I had happy, tear-filled eyes more than once, but I’m not shy about having those in public. Any piece of literature, art, or performance media that can move me to tears while sharing that experience with others is hands-down on my list of favorite things.

As I read on while enjoying a scrumptious plate of mixed seafood, I was again conscious of how wonderful the setting was for my personal experience with the book. The combination made for an absolutely lovely evening.

I am really looking forward to snuggling in for the rest of the book with Tami’s harp music playing in the background to complete the experience. I’ll definitely write an update when I complete my reading journey and share more about this fantastic project, so stay tuned for my follow up piece.

And Now, the Actual Website!

Marketing Eco is proud to point you to www.womenashealers.com where you can hear Tami’s harp music and learn more about the book project.

Call for Reader Responses

Marketing Eco would love to know where you take your Women as Healers: Voices of Vibrancy book copy and how you share your reading experience, so please feel share your book adventures and photos by submitting a comment.

Stay tuned to WomenAsHealers.com for further updates as Women as Healers: Voices of Vibrancy book adventure roles out!

Self Help

Case History Highlight

In January of 2010 I launched a website for start up, Geneva Fund Partners, as a solution for their trading portal.

The website integrates the back end algorithmic trading interface provided by a partner company within the website’s architecture, simplifying the user experience, and allowing Geneva Fund Partners to offer their clients other tips and offers.

By using WordPress architecture for the website, owner Marshall Gause is able to update the content 24/7 from any place with an Internet connection without using any special software or programming knowledge.

The website also integrates trading commentary and linkage in a way that allows side bar boxes to be added for specified pages, and turned “off” for all other pages. In all, the WordPress platform allowed a totally customized solution, seamless integration, and 24/7 ease of update access from anywhere with Internet connection for Geneva Fund Partners.

About Geneva Fund Partners:

Geneva Fund Partners is an asset management firm specializing in targeted return fixed income portfolios and algorithmic FX trading. The Geneva Fund Partners leadership team has decades of collective institutional portfolio management and structured yield experience.

Structured Income Portfolio Management

• Fee based, separate managed targeted income yield accounts.
• Account types: Individual, Joint, Corporate, Trust & IRA.

Algorithmic FX Trading

• GFP clients have exclusive access to our proprietary intra-day FX trading algorithms.
• Exclusive, free live intra-day algorithmic trade signal emails.

Visit Geneva Fund Partners >

Financial Financial, website launch, WordPress

Scanlon Leadership Network public facing website.

Case History Highlight

The Scanlon Leadership Network needed to consolidate websites and create an easy-to-manage public website along with member, consultancy, foundation, and board Intranet areas controlled by unique permissions to improve collaboration, communication, and access to Scanlon materials. I consolidated domain management and websites, created a single point of entry based on WordPress website archictecture and fleshed out the SharePoint Intranet architecture and permissions on the SharePoint site launched by Bob Bruce of Trista Technology.

Members, Consultants, the Foundation, the Board, and the network’s support structure each have their own Intranet areas, visible only to those with specific area permissions.

The Scanlon SharePoint Intranet features tabbed areas that are only visible to each group based on permissions: Members, consultants, the foundation, the board, and the network's support team. The above view is the admin view which shows all tabs due to the admins permissions to edit all areas of the Intranet. A member, for instance, would only see the Home and Members tabs.

Both the public facing WordPress site and the SharePoint Intranet site and sub sites were launched in May 2010 and are ready for content that will be developed by the Scanlon Leadership Network in phases. Since both platforms are so easy for anyone without web development knowledge to edit and are scalable, they are ideal for businesses of all sizes to use for external and internal communication and collaboration.

The Scanlon Leadership Network plans to add and update their own content via volunteers living across the United States. Since both platforms enable updates to be performed from any Internet connection anywhere in the world via permission-based login, they present an ideal solution.

Leadership

The Compression "Main Site" features a walk through Compression Thinking and a Compression Thinking mind map.

I developed a sticky post-enabled, blog style website for Robert W. “Doc” Hall, Professor Emeritus, Operations Management, Indiana University, and author of “Compression – Meeting the Challenges of Sustainability Through Vigorous Learning Enterprises.” The website empowers Doc to self-publish articles about Compression, create topics for online discussion, and contains an embedded DebateGraph.org mind map that Doc designed and DebateGraph.org founder David Price helped to get started on www.DebateGraph.org. The new website’s sticky post capability organizes content and serves it up in a modular format that makes it easier for his visitors to digest the complex components of Compression Thinking.

The Compression "Discussion Forum" enables discussion about Compression Thinking and practical application.

About Doc Hall:

Frequently called “Doc” by industry friends, Hall is a founding member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence and received its award for outstanding lifetime service. For 22 years he was editor-in-chief of AME’s publication, Target. He also received the SME Gold Medal for outstanding service to the manufacturing engineering profession in technical communications, technical writing, and lectures.

Hall has authored and co-authored six books on manufacturing excellence, with topics ranging from the improvement of manufacturing practice to organizational development and renewal. He also has an interest in innovation, and is a judge for the PACE Award (innovation by auto industry suppliers). A prior book, The Soul of the Enterprise (1992) touched on some of the topics in Compression, so he’s been ruminating about Compression thinking for almost 20 years – reluctantly concluding that there is no “easy out.” Compression thinking applies the best ideas seen in organizing for work to the manifold problems of the 21st century.

About Compression Thinking:

The 21st century must be a turning point. Physical economic expansion that accelerated with the industrial revolution cannot continue indefinitely. The earth has finite resources, but our legacy business and economic thinking promotes expansion, assuming that more resources are always available – somewhere. Transforming ourselves to limit consumption while simultaneously increasing human quality of life for everyone is the supreme human challenge of Compression.

What to do? The basics begin with eliminating waste, not doing that which doesn’t need to be done. Then reuse, repair, remanufacture, recycle and so on. Many individuals are doing what they can to decrease their personal waste of energy, water, and materials. But without working organizations creating systems that help them do it, that effect is minimal. And careful conservation is not enough. Every technology can have adverse consequences. Unless working organizations make a new kind of thinking practical, individual measures cannot offset the heedlessness stimulated by commercial incentives.

Compression calls for a change in fundamental economic thinking — a new mindset — Compression Thinking. This begins by contemplating issues so interrelated that single engineering fixes are unlikely to let mass consumption continue. Many different imaginative changes will be necessary, under always changing conditions. Most companies have barely started. Some do a little, but claim a lot, thus laying themselves open to charges of “greenwash.” Our technical and systems issues are unprecedented, but our biggest challenge, always, is us.

So start to look behind financial facades to see the physical reality of what we do. The transformation needed is so great that it amounts to redesign. Remediating excess consumption after it has happened is not good enough — expensive too. One can only go on from the present, devising operational methods that anticipate future problems and preclude them before they happen.

The goal of Compression is in short to greatly reduce global resource consumption while globally increasing human quality of life for everyone. It is a difficult challenge, yet it is possible.

To learn more about Compression Thinking, to download the free 55 page condensed version of the book “Compression” and extended footnotes, and to learn how to start thinking differently, visit Compression.org >

Sustainability

The Walter Mobility Group's website highlights the many applications for the groundbreaking technology.

Case History Highlight

As Vice President of Marketing I’m responsible for all aspects of strategic marketing development for the HybriCraft™ family of vehicles.

In this role I have developed the marketing plan, interactive media and content, business processes, and contributed to the business plan for the company during the ongoing research and development stage, and for eventual market introduction.

In this 1976 image, William Walter takes his HedgeHopper™ up on a ½-diameter air cushion to demonstrate how his newly patented design improved upon conventional skirtless air cushion craft (ACC).

Go to the Walter Group website to learn more about the HybriCraft family of vehicles >

Aeronautics

Mock up of the first FindLaw Lawyer Marketing blog.

Case History Highlight

I developed marketing programs, collateral, web content, advertising, a new inside sales framework with sales strategies for all stages of the sales cycle, and researched corporate blogging for both a FindLaw blog product promotion and to lay the groundwork for the FindLaw lawyer marketing blog.

Legal