Anaheim, Sunday, January 19, 2020
Hey, Rock Star!
I'm writing to you this morning from the 2020 NAMM Show. NAMM stands for the National Association of Music Merchants, and this show at the Anaheim Convention Center is its annual gathering of more than 100,000 music retailers, musicians, instrument makers of all kinds, and more.
When I first walked into the convention center and strolled through the acreage of oboes to get to the hectare of harpsichords which lay beyond Banjo-land... I thought that one of the M's in NAMM had to stand for Madness. Or maybe Massive? Because WHOA.
It's crazy. It's fantastic.
* * *
Most people don't read my speaking contract very carefully. Which causes last-minute stress sometimes when I show up for a rehearsal and the event organizers didn't realize that I need to use my own computer. Or that I require a downstage monitor so I can see, without turning around, what the audience sees on the screen behind me.
So my right-hand Jess started to include ridiculous requests in the final follow-up email before I arrive on site to see in advance who reads, who doesn't.
For NAMM, I requested 6 bottles of room-temperature Fiji water (it tastes like Fiji!) and one live polar bear.
No one has ever fulfilled these requests (they're unfulfillable). Yet when I walked into the NAMM Green Room on Friday at 7 AM, guess what was waiting for me...?
Fiji water. One polar bear.
The bear was stuffed. Not live. But it did light up (in NAMM colors!), so... as NAMM's Jessica Duarte said, "It's not exactly not living."
Did I get special treatment because I was a NAMM keynote? Nope. I'm not a big deal here by any stretch: My session Friday was one of more than 300 NAMM professional development sessions. Jessica has at least 299 other speakers she needs to read contracts for.
* * *
I called an Uber at the Orange County airport and noticed that the guy had a 5-star rating. I've taken probably a thousand Ubers over the years. I've never had a single one that had a 5-star rating. Have you? Even the best drivers have an off day or off ride. We all do.
So as Wael pulled up, I was actually excited to ride with him: Is he the Jimmie Johnson of Uber drivers? Are the seats of his Toyota Prius upholstered in unicorn fur? Will Lizzo herself be riding shotgun, serenading me on flute?
No, it turned out. Wael was polite enough, I guess. But the experience wasn't special or any different from any other Uber ride.
Until we got to the Anaheim Hilton. Then he jumped out in a flash and somehow apparated at my door, opening it before I even touched the handle. He retrieved my luggage, and as he handed it he also handed me two mini candy bars—a Snickers and a Milky Way—and a pack of chewing gum (Polar Ice flavor. Foreshadowing...?)
"I really appreciate you riding with me," he said, pausing and looking directly at me. "Thank you."
It's not like I chose to ride with Wael. He was randomly assigned to me based on his location. That's how Uber works.
But he acted like I'd somehow requested him and his lime-green Toyota Prius, and he was grateful for it.
And I was grateful for the Polar Ice gum. Because after flying for the better part of the afternoon I was about to walk into a crowded hotel lobby and close-talk with god knows how many people (Hi, Mitch Joel!); things needed a little refreshing. Know what I mean?
Listen, I know things like bottled water and mints and mini-candy bars aren't exactly remarkable in Ubers. But most drivers just lay them out there. Most drivers just toss a few bars into the console and don't make it a thing.
But not Wael: He made the candy/gum reveal a big deal. He created a moment, a connection. It felt generous.
Guess how many stars I gave him? Guess who also got a bigger-than-usual tip?
* * *
It's been a busy week for me. And probably for you, too. The holidays are well over. Work is in full swing. So what do those stories have to do with content, marketing, growing your business?
Business growth is rooted in abundance and generosity. Those feel like big words and idealistically impossible, lofty goals. But they're not. It's a mindset more than anything else: Give to receive, as my friend and MarketingProfs CEO Joe Terry said to our team last week.
Sometimes it's expressed in big ways (useful content, stellar customer service, more).
And sometimes it's expressed in the polar opposite (hah!): Small and generous gestures. Like stuffed bears. And gum.
* * *
Here are a few things worth sharing this week.
1. Homebody Economy
In the previous issue, I shared how momentum matters more than milestones. How you get there is as important as where you end up. (Missed it?
Here you go.)
It touched a nerve. I heard high-fives and hell-yeahs from a bunch of people here and on social. It turns out that it's not just us. In Vox, Rebecca Jenning writes:
There's a clear backlash brewing to the idea that all of our time needs to be allotted for -- evidence lies in Anne Helen Peterson's viral essay about millennial burnout and Erin Griffith's New York Times piece on the problem with hustle culture. We've heard that the perfectly crafted lifestyle account is dead, that young people are rejecting the pressure to catalog their lives in
the most algorithmically optimizable way possible.
Related 👉 👉 👉 A slower, quieter approach is having a moment. More evidence:
Silent book clubs, where people get together in bars and silently read.
