Julie Holmes

“It’s not my problem.” “It’s not my job.” “I wouldn’t know where to start.” “I can’t.” “I won’t.” “I quit.”

Imagine inventors saying these kinds of phrases. What if those inventors STOPPED thinking, creating and solving? Terrifying, right?!

But this is exactly what’s happening in YOUR teams, organization and maybe even in your own mind every single day. Whether it’s problem-solving around product development, improving customer service, a time-saving process that leads to better productivity or trying a different way to attract and retain employees –thinking like an inventor changes the game for all of these and so much more!

Finding opportunities to “invent” starts with just one little word and it ends with collaboration, teamwork and an attitude of ownership. Learn how you and your organization can turn the tables on your performance by simply knowing how to think like an inventor.

This highly motivational and inspiring keynote engages and enlightens while empowering your people with the kind of thinking that creates solutions (and an attitude) that is truly inspiring. We’re all inventors at heart; some of us just don’t know it yet!

Program Results:

• Personal initiative will soar when you learn the secret to spotting any problem or opportunity waiting to be solved
• Increase that sense of ownership by understanding how invention is fun, easy and (almost always) free
• Inspire an unlimited supply of ideas and opportunities when you see the world through inventors’ eyes
• An audience that is eager to learn for the rest of the day and the rest of their lives

Ideal For:

• Opening & Closing Keynotes
• Department/Company Events
• Conferences of all Sizes

Your competition is moving FAST. And you have new competitors entering the market all the time. In fact, your customers have more choices every single day. So, what are you doing to keep up, stand out and get ahead?

Innovation is critical for your business to survive but all that takes time, resources and a budget the size of a small country. And even if you had all that, what could you do? You can’t turn out new products any faster!

Take a deep breath and get out your notepad – it’s time to master the six strategies that ALL innovative companies use to get ahead and stay that way.

You’ll be able to react quickly, pivot on demand and spot new opportunities on the horizon once you know and leverage this secret sauce. And the best part is that you get to reuse these strategies again and again to continually differentiate and dominate.

Program Results:

• Increase revenue when you deliver new, profitable offerings to customers consistently by leveraging key innovation generation tools
• Reduce cost by applying a critical innovation strategy to your processes – and empowering your people to find and fill the gaps
• Grow your customer lifetime value and increase customer retention when you deliver innovative solutions to the fringes of their experience
• Save time for yourself and everyone else in the organization by creating an innovation plan that effectively capitalizes on the six D.E.T.A.I.L. strategies

Ideal For:

Executive Conferences
Leadership Retreats
Strategy-Focused Events

Have you lost an employee that was really valuable to your business (and to you)? What if you could have prevented that by thinking outside the box? What if you could become the leader that everyone wants to work for because you think differently, connect better and inspire them?

It’s time to light the fuse on your creativity and generate the little big bangs that will make your teams reach for the stars and celebrate together.

In this interactive keynote, you’ll master a key innovation strategy, be challenged to share real-world leadership challenges and then we’ll crowdsource innovative, realistic Little Big Bangs to address them. Everyone will leave with relevant and practical ideas that can be leveraged right away.

The best part, however, is that the strategies you experience during this program can be repeated back at your office to continually up your leadership or to share with your teams to encourage creative thinking and problem solving.

Program Results:

• Cultivate the 10 attributes of an innovative leader in yourself and your team
• Solve real-world leadership challenges with strategies for generating new, innovative ideas
• Be a more effective and inspiring leader when you capture the inexpensive, fast ideas that impact engagement, skill development, influence, and productivity

Ideal For:

• Leadership Conferences/Retreats
• Professional Development Programs
• Company Events

Sample Options:

• Little Big Bangs for Leaders
• Little Big Bangs for Sales Leaders
• Little Big Bangs for Women Leaders

From prospecting to qualifying, contracting to closing – all eyes are on you to deliver the revenue. But how much money are you leaving on the table by doing the same things you’ve always done? It’s time to get creative and apply the principles of innovation to sales.

Little Big Bang innovations are all about speed and impact. For example, how could you get prospects to call YOU instead of the other way around? Maybe you need a clever strategy to restart that stalled sales cycle. Or you’ve relied on the same handful of customers as references and now you need to grow that pool.

Julie shows you how to spot the easy places where you can improve your sales process. As a result, you’ll close more deals, get more money and create happy customers that stay longer.

In this interactive keynote, you’ll leverage the hidden highs and lows of your prospect’s journey, find the gaps in your sales process and apply proven innovation techniques to keep your prospects and customers loving you (and buying from you) every single day.

Program Results:

• Understand your prospects’ and customers’ journey, how that impacts your sales and where you should be innovating for the most impact
• Learn the precise moments to connect with clients and what you could be adding for more sales
• Connect with prospects, increase conversions and sell more when you break down the innovation opportunities

Ideal For:

• Sales and Revenue Focused Conferences
• Company Sales Kick-off Events

Sample Options:

• Little Big Bangs for Sales Pros
• Little Big Bangs for Sales Account Managers

How many of your customers are considering switching to your competition right now?

You know it’s expensive to replace a lost customer and that it damages your team’s moral every time it happens. But there’s an easy (and fun) way that you can keep more customers, make them happier and also empower your people to become creative service superstars.

By embracing innovation for the rest of us, you unleash an army of problem solvers and opportunity spotters. With Little Big Bangs for Service, you’ll be giving them the tools and skills to find powerful and profitable innovation opportunities in every interaction.

Using the Customer Emotion Map™, you’ll get to know your customers’ experience in a whole new way and find the touchpoint gaps and opportunities that are just waiting to be addressed with your innovative solutions.

Your customers – and your bottom line – will love you for you it!

Program Results:

• Find painful gaps and powerful opportunities in your service when you Master the Customer Emotion Map™
• Add revenue when you spot upsell and up-serve opportunities
• Leverage the 10 Innovation Sparks to develop your innovation capabilities
• Evaluate and implement your next great customer service ideas when you use the bootstrap approach to innovation

Ideal For:

• Customer and Professional Service Conferences
• Customer-centric Organization Events

Sample Options:

• Little Big Bangs for Service
• Little Big Bangs for Professional Services (Who Grudgingly Sell)
• Little Big Bangs for Meeting & Event Planners

Don’t let anyone fool you! There are plenty of BAD ideas.

In fact, it’s these bad ideas that cause management to stifle bottom-up innovation and decide that it’s more hassle than it’s worth to involve their teams in problem solving. In some cases, those same managers might even believe that creative problem solving is a mystic art that requires decades of study and a pilgrimage to Google.

But AMAZING, CLEVER, CREATIVE and PROFITABLE ideas are inside every single one of us. Imagine an unlimited supply of solutions and opportunities that have been carefully crafted and vetted.

All you need are inspiration, consistent creative strategies and the right set of tools – all of which can be found using Julie’s B.R.I.G.H.T. idea process. Whether you are looking to spot new opportunities in your department or get innovative about how you serve your customers (internal or external), you’ll leave this session as an idea machine.

Program Results:

• Find, evaluate and develop great ideas when you follow the B.R.I.G.H.T. steps for ideation
• Pursue the best ideas when you leverage your own
• “Crazy Ideas Double Checklist”
• Embrace the bootstrap mentality for quick and easy testing of your next big idea

Ideal For:

• Team Building Events
• Company-wide Conferences
• Cross-industry Conventions (e.g. User Groups, Product Conferences, etc.)
• Professional Development Sessions