"There have been big changes here in the way we think and talk about marketing since the course you taught."

"There have been a big change here at IPAM/Crown Futures since the course you taught.

So far the big change has been in the way we think and talk about marketing.

We now write and design our materials around the problems and perceptions in the mind of our ideal client rathter than just come up with a laundry list of what we do.

We are discovering that our public events here in Fairfield are accomplishing the branding that we want within our community; before you came we really didn't understand what branding was or how to turn it to our advantage.

We feel that we can use these branding discoveries that we have had on the local level to strong advantage as we try to expand our client base on the natuional level.

We are much more clear about what kind of business we want to target.

It's frusrtaingly slow to get the systems in place which will enable us to really develop on these ideas, but we know where we are going, and we know quite alot about how to get there.

We see some evidence on the bottom line that we are doing better, but this is a business where relationships need to develop and mature over time, often times years, before they convert into signifivant business and significant referrals.

We're confident that we are on the right track, that we will continue to get better, that momentum will continue to build, and that big things will be comming our way."

By Jim Comey, Iowa Progressive Assett Management, Fairfield Iowa

Colours: love blue and green, but, my apartment in woody and deep reds and I think that's just fine.

Living: Based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. But for a year or two i will be in Scotland going to Sabhal Mor Ostaig - a Gaelic COllege on the Isle of Skye.

Places: My favorite place on earth is the Yuba River in Northern California. In August the river is perfectly cool and the big rocks can bake you from beneath as you lie on them and are baked from above by the sun.

Hobbies: Close Up Magic, Improvised Comedy (like "Whose Line is It Anyway?") and playing guitar. I've written over 60 songs, and have about 20 I'm pretty darned happy with.

Books I've Read/Am Reading Recently:

• Monopolize Your Marketplace - Rick Harshaw
  
• SoulCraft - Bill Plotkin
  
• Anything by Derrick Jensen
• Handbook of the Scottish Gaelic World - Michael Newton
• Soil and Soul - Alaistair MacIntosh

What Am I Really Excited About These Days?

• Teaching fundraising to activists. Mostly based on the works of Lynne Twist and Terry Axelrod. I've just been doing it for free lately. Best way to learn something is to teach it I say.
• Exploring my Celtic (Irish/Scottish/Welsh) roots, exploring the scots gaelic language and the indigenous spirituality of the Celts.
• Marketing: I want to see good business succeed and the ones destroying the world out of business. I'm very jazzed to work with social entrepreneurs around their marketing.

Biggest Vision?
Helping to create events, resources and projects that help white folks reclaim a sense of their indigenous soul. A Celtic Youth Jam has been a smoldering fire in the head for years now.

My Favorite Things To Do?

• Help my friends work through big problems and find great solutions.
• Helping people expand their vision of what they think is possible by showing them that there are so many ways to get their outcomes that they have never considered.
• Asking people hard questions that really make them think and feel in new ways.

Biggest Accomplishements:
Helping a friend of mine kick her drug habit, not kill herself and get her life together.

Where Am I A Bit Rusty?
Going with the flow. Tad needs to know what's going on. Boss-man needs the info.

Favorite Music: mostly accoustic guitar stuff. I'm big into celtic music these days (Lunasa, Ossian, Mary Jane Lammond etc), Ben Folds, They Might Be Giants, Bruce Cockburn, Barenaked Ladies, David Gray, Elliot Smith, Dar Williams, The Arcade Fire, and the Quebecois band Harmonium.

Top 10 Most Influential Non-Fiction Books in My Life (in randomn order):

1. Soulcraft - Bill Plotkin
2. The Portable Coach - Thomas Leonard
3. The Culture of Make Believe - Derrick Jensen
4. The Third Millennium - Ken Carey
5. The Tao of Leadership - John Heider
6. Conversations With God - Neale Donald Walsch
7. A Language Older Than Words - Derrick Jensen
8. Love - Leo Buscaglia
9. Diet for A New America - John Robbins
10. Fit for Life II: Living Health - Marilyn and Harvey Diamond

Favorite Fiction Books:
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien Anything by Guy Gavriel Kay or Charles de Lint

Diet: Mostly raw food vegan (not only does he only eat plant food, he doesn't even cook it . . . he is impossible to eat out with and has been banned by 3 foreign countries).

If Tad could have one super power what would it be?
The power to reverse time 13 seconds and make any decision again (unfortunately it would likely come with the mitigating factor of having a horrible memory. "Now, why did I jump back in time again?" . . . BLAM!!!)

Biggest Weakness:
Over-promising

Biggest Strength:
Over responding. I learn from my mistakes like no one I know. When I experience pain, I go to school on that, learn and create systems to ensure that it never happens again. Low pain tolerance on this cat.

Coolest thing I've developed:
still working on them . . .

Worst time in my life:
Being $6,000 in debt and afraid I was going to be sued for not paying it back on time. The in order to raise the money I held my first student leadership event for 250 students, which proceeded to be so bad, that an hour before it was scheduled to end there were only 40 people left. Everyone was pretty mad.

Best lesson I've ever learned:
The physical universe never lies.

Most intriguing/compelling project:
Radical Business - helping conscious folk make more money.