Observed

When I connect with clients and others at Kentucky Derby time instead of (or, in addition to) the Christmas holidays, I'm being asymmetrical. The better to get noticed and remembered...something I learned a long time ago from Jim Durham.

The calendar says The Holidays are still eight months away.  For business development purposes, however, you might want to try a strategic re-frame.

Over the past few days, for example, I’ve been leveraging one of the times of year that makes Louisville (my home town) Louisville.   I’ve sent a bunch of cards and gifts to clients, prospects and referral sources that follow a Kentucky Derby theme.

When I do this, I…

1. Stand out from the crowd. While I call or write clients and others during the holidays, I understand that I’m probably lost in the deluge when I do that.  Not so when my people get a quirky note or Derby tschotske from me in late April.
2. Brand myself. Most of my clients are on the coasts in major markets.  It helps me to be known as That Writer from Kentucky.  I mean, where else can you claim Hunter Thompson, Robert Penn Warren, Bobbie Ann Mason, Barbara Kingsolver, Louis D. Brandeis, Marsha Norman, Silas House, Ed McClanahan, Sue Grafton and a poet by the name of Muhammad Ali?
3. Show some flair. Hey, it’s Derby!

You get the idea.  When the objective is to Get Found, make it easy.

PS:  This one’s for you, Jim.

My father could have moments of self-awareness.  One of them was a recurring theme, when he would say once a year that everybody in Louisville became an expert on horse racing once a year.

Kal (my dad) was referring to springtime and the annual rites at Churchill Downs.

I’m not claiming to be an expert.   (Though I can pretty much read the Daily Racing Form.  It’s just Who cares?)  I do, however, know a thing or two about the first Saturday in May in my hometown.

So, the following is for any reader who’s never been to the race and doesn’t expect to be one of the 250,000 or so beautiful people passing through the gates at the track Friday and Saturday.  And is still reading this post. (more…)

A week from yesterday, there will be a horse race in Louisville.  A week from today, late Sunday afternoon, May 2,  tens of thousands of race fans will be regaining consciousness right about now.

Either way, thank Irvin S. Cobb.

Cobb was one of the earliest in a long line of great Kentucky authors.  OK, maybe not in the same league as Robert Penn Warren, Wendell Berry or Barbara Kingsolver.

But pretty darned good.  Good enough to make it all the way from Paducah, Ky., to the Saturday Evening Post, Hollywood and beyond. (more…)