Nice to meet ya!

Nicky Aminov is a barber at V’s Barbershop in Scottsdale, AZ. He greeted me warmly on my recent visit to his shop on my AZ vacation. The shop is retro-modern, bright, clean and friendly… Just the kind of place I would go if I lived in his town… Just the kind of place I would cut hair if I was still cutting hair… I could hang out there all day. They even sell T shirts with the shop logo. I should have bought one.

Open source collaboration

I am reading an interesting book titled “We Are Smarter Than Me”. It is a book on the amazing power of open source collaboration. Got me thinkin’. What type of clipper would be the result of an open source clipper design initiative?… so… here we go. I want to hear from you. I will be posting clipper design questions here in my blog. I will title the blog entries “Open Source…” so you will immediately recognize the entries. Please send me an email to expert@andis.com with your thoughts and opinions regarding the answer to the question posted. The beauty of this is that there are NO wrong answers. I want your honest, experienced, professional input. In open source everyone has a voice. If you jump into this a bit late, please go back to prior blog entries so you can contribute on all aspects and all questions. I will want some demographic info as well to help me frame your input. Please also tell me your gender and your number of years experience in the business. We will start out simple and get more technically detailed down the road. First question… Would the ultimate clipper be corded or cordless? And why? Talk to me.

My hair...

…is longer than it has been in quite a while. I am growing the top out… still having Roy taper up the sides tight every 2 weeks. I am not sure why I am doing this… or what the goal is… but I am a hair farmer for just a while and we will see what becomes of the project… it is still a clipper cut… at least half of it is… you can’t call the top a cut if you do not cut it.

Barber shops galore

The December hurricane in Puerto Rico diverted my vacation to Phoenix. My barbershop radar is always on and tuned in quite well. I can smell the aftershave. I can hear the clippers from a good way off. On this trip I was picking up more shops than I have ever seen in any city in America. They were everywhere. I wonder just how many more shops there are here per capita than in other cities. There were shops in all neighborhoods. The usual range was here from very nice, retro/modern places to the old and dingy neighborhood favorites. I wonder if the numbers of retirees makes for more barbers available to work? Although in the shops I visited there were plenty of younger barbers to be found. More research is needed. Likely, during the winter again.

Power Point

I delivered one of the best presentations of my selling career. The centerpiece of the presentation was a power point presentation unlike any I have ever used before or seen presented. I followed some advice I read in a book recently about presentation and persuasion. This was not the first time I have implemented a golden nugget form this particular book. I recently used another idea to score a big win. The book had been recommended by a colleague. The colleague then became the victim of my education and ability to use the information I absorbed from the book. You have to be careful what you tell me to read. I just might learn something… And then I just might use it. Hint: Thank you Jeffrey Gitomer.