Paul Harvey Died Today

KRMG News Talk 1170 in Tulsa OK is reporting that the legendary Tulsa Broadcaster known as Paul Harvey died today.

We will dearly miss him. Our love and prayers are with his family. We look forward to one day rejoining him in heaven, and hearing “The rest of the story.”

KRMG News Talk 740 KRMG invites you to read more, and post your condolences HERE.

A Wise Panhandler? You Gotta Read This!

The panhandler's secret---from Seth Godin

When there were old-school parking meters in New York, quarters were precious.

One day, I'm walking down the street and a guy comes up to me and says, "Do you have a dollar for four quarters?" He held out his hand with four quarters in it.

Curious, I engaged with him. I took out a dollar bill and took the four quarters.

Then he turned to me and said, "can you spare a quarter?"

What a fascinating interaction.

First, he engaged me. A fair trade, one that perhaps even benefited me, not him.

Now, we have a relationship. Now, he knows I have a quarter (in my hand, even). So his next request is much more difficult to turn down. If he had just walked up to me and said, "can you spare a quarter," he would have been invisible.

Too often, we close the sale before we even open it.

Interact first, sell second.

I continue to trumpet that business runs on relationships. This story is a good example of relationship building first, then selling.

How does this apply to your world?

A Tale of Two Restaurants

I’d like to tell you about two different dining experiences. The first was lunch at a national chain steak house in Columbus, Mississippi. The second was at a place called the OK Café in Atlanta, Georgia. The first was lunch today, the other was dinner tonight.

Lunch was actually a late lunch, after the rush. We were thinking we could get in and out, and get back in the air. Our beverages came pretty quick. We were hungry, we ordered and one of the guys asked for bread right away. Ten or fifteen minutes passed and our salads showed up. Later, much later, the food and BREAD showed. The problem was it took so long to get to us that we filled up in peanuts and salad. The food was lukewarm and tasted---OK. There was not even a “We’re sorry it took so long…”.

After we settled into our rooms in Atlanta, we decided to honor our friend Brian King, by eating at his favorite Atlanta restaurant. Brian was killed in a plane crash on May 3rd, 2008. The establishment is called the OK Café. They serve excellent “comfort food” from the south. We were seated within five minutes. We were served our sweet tea and we ordered. We visited for a little while and our food arrived. As Sue, our waitress, put the food in front of us, she said, “We feel like it took too long for us to get your food to you, so this is all on the house.” We were stunned. The bill, before dessert, had to have been close to $70. She insisted we have some Pecan Pie and Bread Pudding as well.

We had a wonderful time honoring Brian King tonight. Brian’s favorite was OK Cafe's Three Cheese Macaroni. I have to admit, it’s the best I have ever tasted!

They Want to Connect With You

You have a great opportunity as a business owner in your marketing and advertising, if you are willing and able to be authentic. The younger audience today has money to spend, and they have a built in authenticity-meter. The more open and honest you are, the more they will believe you and trust you. You don’t have to be perfect. As a matter of fact, they can’t stand posers.

If your marketing looks like a commercial and sounds like a commercial, you quickly become invisible to this generation. They want to connect with you. They want to know you care about them. They are starving for real relationships. If you give them one, they will quickly become your number one evangelist.

POSER---
“A poser is someone who tries to fit into a profile they aren't. People who try to give off the impression that they are one thing when they are really another. Also, a poser can be one who says they can do something that they can't. Or more commonly, a poser is someone who, when doing something successfully, takes more than enough credit for it.” ---The Urban Dictionary