Friday, December 5, 2008

The World's Greatest Salesman

Mike is unique,  Unique as in different, exclusive, individual, lone, one, one and only, onliest, only, particular, rare, separate, single, solitary, solo, sui generis, uncommon, unexampled.  All of that describes the guy.  Why do I say that?

 

On our side trip in life to South Florida, I got to see him in action at the trade show.  I have seen a lot of salesmen do their salesmen thing, but before watching Mike in action, I never knew I could like one.  Mike literally knows everyone on the planet or at least someone within three, not six, degrees of himself.  Having done a lot of different things in life, he just knows practically everyone he comes in contact with or at least someone they know on a first name basis.  With his permission, I will later roll out the full character of Mike, and believe me, he is a character.

 

Mike was doing his hook and reel with non-stop, truly interesting and appropriate stories when trade show participants start to come to our booth giving Mike big, long lost buddy hugs and just waiting to hear of his latest adventures and dying to give him some business for our company.  These weren't just anybody, these were successful CEO's, with real buy power.

 

Watching Mike ply his salesman craft, was like watching an artist at work.  You know how that feels when you are watching someone who is really good at their art?  Yeah, it was something like that.  The beauty of watching him do his thing is that you don't feel like you need a shower afterwards.  Like any good sales course tells you, he is really selling himself.  The product could be the dumbest widget you have ever seen, but when he sells himself, everybody wants to buy it!  So there is another little Side Trip in Life, back to exploring the SF Bay.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

South Florida

Dude!  Can you see anything, I asked Roger as we walked out of the building into a tropical deluge to get something to eat.  "What the....” Roger exclaimed with the kind of questioning voice someone uses when they think they have seen an alien or maybe Elvis.  Being a puro California guy, Rog had obviously never or not very often anyway, been subjected to such heat and humidity.  Yep, that's what they call South Florida rain and you can expect a lot more where that came from, I told him.  

 

In Florida for a trade show and having both lived there and having family there, I was used to it.  Not my cup of tea either, but a nice side trip diversion to day to day life.  

 

So the rain finally stops and we grab up the number one salesman in the world, Mike and head, on Mike's insistence to a raw bar.  Now if you haven't ever been to a raw bar, you have to find one because they are awesome.

 

Our adventure started out innocently enough. Punched raw bar into Google and the results into the GPS and off we were to places that were either closed or looked like the type of places we had been warned about..."be careful, it has to be fresh..."  Now in the background of all of this not finding a raw bar, Mike is patiently telling us exactly where one is, but it's something like 20 miles up the road.  So we got the bright idea to stop into a Walgreen's, of all places, to find one a little closer.  I mean, aren't Walgreen's employees the most likely source of raw cuisine information?  Evidently not, as we all ended up almost rolling out of the store laughing from the experience.  We started out with someone who looked knowledgeable enough, but were quickly deferred to the camera department, who brought over the manager.  We then pretty much ended up with the entire staff telling us of two possibilities; one was a place that we had already pretty much determined was either closed or missing in action.  The other was Red Lobster...  So finally, we started up Hwy 1, hitting every nook and cranny that looked like a raw bar until we finally just drove to where Mike had been pointing us all along.  

 

The place he had been trying to get us to go enjoy was the Southport Raw Bar.  Once we arrived and got a plate of oysters each under our belts we knew we would have made a huge mistake not listening to Mike.  I think we both resolved to listen to him on such matters in the future.  After a plate of shrimp, followed by more oysters, we were convinced, Mike, in addition to be the world's greatest salesman, was also a culinary genius! 

 

The Southport Raw Bar has the atmosphere you would look for in a raw bar as well.  We sat up at the counter, which looks out at a marina.  There were also tables outside on the marina.  Overall, it had that South Florida or if you have ever heard of Jimmy Buffett feel to it that just made you want to buy massive plates of delicious raw food.  Pretty good business plan, great food and atmosphere!  Here they are on the web: http://www.southportrawbar.com/index.phtml


Speaking of great food and atmosphere, Roger and I found another place, but for breakfast, as we were leaving to go to the airport.  Bagel Cove at 19003 Biscayne Blvd in Miami.  The corned beef hash with a fresh bagel was to die for!

 

So back to explore the bay with all the wonderful things it has to offer, but what a nice side trip in life South Florida was.