After Jenny & I got our butts kicked in June (tough month), we decided to turn off the iphones,  blackberries, and anything with a wi-fi connection and head out for some R&R in the Rocky Mountains, Estes Park to be exact.  After a few margaritas at the Tiki Bar, we took a stroll through downtown to find some dinner a came across what looked like a boulder climbing Toyota YJ and a stretch limo's love child in a parking lot of a small strip mall in front of some open doors of a small office.

jenny and i enjoying those drinks i was talking about

So I drag Jenny inside with me and come face to face with the owner of Rocky Mountain Rush, Neal. Rocky Mountain Rush gives off-road tours through Rocky Mountain National Park.  I ask for a pamphlet and walk out 5 minutes later with 2 seats to the 1pm tour the next day.  You know that you're dealing with an owner that has everything into his business when they won't let anyone with even the smallest of interest go without pushing for a sale. 

Don't take that wrong, I'm not talking a used car salesman approach, but a personalized one where he took a quick read of us and what tour would work best for us and then left us with no question that the 1pm ride was something that we would regret if we were to miss out on...or maybe it was the margaritas.  We were looking forward to the next day and went back to the Tiki Bar to celebrate.

Yep, the tour was great, but there were 3 things that Neal did that stood out and I feel that everyone could be applying in our careers & personal lives to...well, just to make life better

1. GIVE THEM AN EXPERIENCE

He took pictures of us on our camera (because it's tough to take couple pics on your own), he made sure everyone was comfortable at all times, constantly asked for feedback, kept everyone on the ride engaged throughout the tour.  At one point the guy even grabbed my sunglasses off of my seat and cleaned them for me.  How could our lives changed if we paid attention to these details with costumers, clients and even loved ones in our lives?

one of the pics neal took of jenny & I

I then noticed that Neal had taken down everyone's names and jotted them down on a small piece of paper in order of where everyone was sitting.  He stuck that piece of paper in the window of the truck and was constantly utilizing it to make sure and call everyone by name.  Even a small detail like that brought more warmth and personalization to the entire experience.  How can you personalize the experience you give to everyone on a daily basis?

When I asked why, Neal said that the structure of his business was built around the simple idea of a 1950's full service gas station.

 "At the old gas stations, you always got more than you paid for.  You came there because you were running low on gas, but you kept coming back for 10 years because of the experience.  They'd clean your windows, pump your gas and even share some local gossip, all with a smile.  They truly appreciated your business."

2.  HAVE A GOOD STORY

As we drove up a long pass towards the summit of our tour nearly 14,000 ft above seal level, Neal stopped pointing out wildlife and geological details and told us his story.  He actually told the entire 16 passenger vehicle why he stopped everything to pursue a dream, become an entrepreneur and begin an off-road tour company in Estes Park, CO.  

Turns out that Neal left a job that he was good at.  He sold wine and he sold the hell of it for almost 16 years.  The problem was that he was burning more than 3000 minutes a month on his cell phone closing deals and he began suffering horrible headaches anytime he'd get a cell phone anywhere close to his head.

 This on top of being burnt out, he made the big decision while out in Rocky Mountain National Park rock climbing in an old Toyota built for the extreme environment, a passion of his and something he'd been doing since he was a kid.  He was at a turning point, but he didn't exactly know what to do.  He then told us that a song came on over the radio at that exact time and it was that song that acted as the large switch and threw him into his current vocation.  Then he turned off the mic and played that song as we drove up the mountain pass looking over miles of some of the most beautiful panoramics you've ever seen.  The song was John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High"

Cheesy?  Hell yes.  Did it make a personal impact for me?  Damn straight.  

If you can make me almost shed a tear while listening to John Denver, you've either drugged me or you're one hell of a storyteller.

People relate to people, not businesses.  People have stories. Interesting people have good stories. Tell your story well and change your world.

3.  DO WHAT YOU'RE GOOD AT

I asked Neal what his secret was and he simply said, "I've always done what I'm good at and hired other people do all of the stuff that I don't do well."

So much good stuff in that sentence! 

We constantly feel the need to stive to get better at the things that we weren't wired to do in the beginning.  We even feel guilt or shame for what we cannot do and so we strive so hard to be Jacks of all trades but masters of none.

To get REALLY good at something (to be an expert), you may need 10,000 hours of practice.  Take the things that come natural to you and become perfect them.  Find a way to offload  the other stuff and the momentum may surprise you.

Neal's really good with people, but Neal sucked at paperwork.  "People kept telling me that paperwork was a necessary evil, but all I saw was that it kept me from making more sales".  So Neal hired someone that organization came natural for.  After that, there was no stopping him.

 neal and i taking a breather on the summit

Needless to say, I had a great time learning about Neal's Business and what drives him first hand.  By the end of the trip he was more of a friend than a business transaction.  I think he can teach us all a lot and if you find your way up near Estes, CO, do yourself a favor and take a tour on Rocky Mountain Rush and tell Neal I sent ya.

Anyone can sell you ice cream, but its the experience that will make you buy from this guy.  When you are trying to sell consumers a product that they can get anywhere else, from anyone else, it's the experience you give them that will be the difference.

Ok, the title may be a bit overkill, but I am working on blog titles that grab attention and hey, it's at least partially true.

Last weekend I went out to get some crab legs from Costco and walked back in the house with a $400 blender, a half ton of mixed fruits and...ummm some crab legs. 

This is going in my marketing blog because the story of how I came to making this seemingly "out of the blue" purchase started becoming more clear as I walked myself through the last few weeks.  It becomes a great example of how brands can enter your life from nowhere and make you a believer and more importantly a buyer in a very short amount of time.

The story starts with the viral video meme of "Will It Blend" videos that feature powerful industrial blenders with an attitude from Blendtec.  Turns out that the guy that blends everything from ipads to golfballs to the amusement of millions of youtube viewers is the CEO & inventor of BlendTec Blenders.  We've all seen the videos and if you've read "Groundswell" you know that all of these video views turned into a lot of profits for the Blendtec company going down as a very early case study of the power of social media.

I didn't ever have a lot of interest in watching an iphone get vaporized in a blender, but the important part is that even if I didn't go online and watch every video and purchase one imeediately, it still served a purpose. 

1. I now know what Blendtec is.

2. I know that Blendtec blenders aren't to be messed with.  Anything that is powerful enough to pulverize a rake that goes in my kitchen, I have some interest in.

I see this as a sort of sleeper cell.  A seed that was implanted in my head for a couple of years that just stayed there waiting for the right opportunity.

This takes us to a couple of weeks ago when my co-worker tells me about a $500 blender that she just bought.  I would usually question her sanity, but she has a good track record of good purchases and the tales that she spun of smoothies, hot soups and making her own peanutbutter were captivating.  However, I still had no interest in a blender of my own.

Then last weekend we were visiting my parents and my mom had DVR'd a blender commercial.  Yes, the blender commercial was so awe inspiring for my mother that she recorded it and wanted to share it with Jenny and I.  There it was again, hot soups, peanut butter, ice-cream. 

At this point, I'm not calling the 800 number to purchase, and I'm not even thinking about Blendtec yet but I am thinking that maybe this would be a good Christmas gift.

Now we go full circle to the Costco trip for crab legs.  There I am in Costco, wondering around the store, sniffing out some free samples when I run smack into a huge Blendtec presentation.  I've entered the eye of the storm.  There is a Blendtec representative showing off the product in real life.  A small crowd had gathered.  I stayed for the hot soup, the ice cream and was sold before he could get to the peanut butter.

So social media didn't really make me buy a Blendtec Blender, but it did plant the seed.  Word of mouth and some tv advertising put some dents in my armor for the product itself, and the demo at Costco was the killshot.  In the words of Hannibal from A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together."

The Costco demo is a genius way to bring a face to face experience to the online branding that they've touched so many possible customers with. 

Will it blend?  Absolutely!

In case you don't get past the first paragraph, let me sum it up.  This strange and wonderful book is a must read.  Buy it today, no matter who you are or where you are in your life, this book will change the way you look at life.

I recently drove to Minneapolis from Kansas City for a work event.  It gave me an opportunity to listen to a couple of books while I was hopping from travel centers, gas stations and random truck stops through Iowa.

I was catching up on Chris Brogan's blog when i ran into his book review of Donald Miller's: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life.  A few clicks later, the book was on my iPhone and I was heading north on 35 hwy.

This was my first Don Miller book, so I didn't know the background story that had gotten him to the spot in his life where he wrote A Million Miles.  Don had written a best seller "Blue Like Jazz" years prior and hadn't had the same luck with his next few books.  The guy was suffering from writers block when a couple of film makers came to him with a plan to start writing the film adaptation of "Blue Like Jazz". 

Through the process of writing the screenplay, Miller was struck by the fact that his own story didn't have what it took to create a movie that anyone would watch. 

He then takes us through his personal quest of story, told through his experiences with the screenplay as a guide through building story into his own life.  He sees himself as the protagonist in his own movie and uses the same age old rules of story building to put himself into situations that gives his character more strength and more value in their given plot line.

He goes after the girl, rides his bike across country & takes a journey to find his biological father, all with the filter of "the story".  Building on the concept in a gradual, natural and non methodical way that gives this book a very personal and real feel.

This book is really tough to put into a bucket.  I guess I could call it the strangest self help book that I've ever read.  Through the first few chapters, I found myself enjoying the life of Donald Miller, but the book takes a leisurely turn and very quickly I was reflecting on my own life.  Once the idea of "personal story" gets into your head, you're going to have a hell of a time getting it out.

 As an audio book, this just had to be told by the author, so I was very happy to here Don's voice behind the narration.  He's not a professional, but his own words wouldn't sound nearly as honest coming from someone else.

This is the kind of book that you'll find yourself constantly telling people about.  You'll begin to see things through a filter of "story", but not in the judgmental way that you may think. 

 The narration of Don's life may not be memorable in a few weeks, but the idea of creating "story" within your life will be with me always.  It's sticky, simple and smart. 

Found this video on Lifehacker tonight from 37Signals' Jason Fried.  He really jumps out quickly and starts making some very smart and simple observations about how broken modern workspaces are and how his company is working on fixing that model.

Although his company's workspace solutions may not work for everyone, this video really makes you start to break down the fundemental flaws of productivity occuring at work.

Looks like Jason also authored Rework which I'll add to my Audible cue.  The video has also gotten me to look into the 37Signals product line.

Take 7 minutes out of your day today and see if what Fried says hits close to home!