So I went to the Engery Solutions Arena (could we find a longer name?) in Salt Lake City, UT last night (I still think that I went to the Delta Center, but nobody would agree with me) I saw Collective Soul live in concert. Wow! Do they know how to put on a show! It was a private show. Novell, a software mega-company in Provo, Utah hired them for Brainshare - their annual show where they bring in their partners to talk about code and the evils of Microsoft. (I know very little about software, so you'll have to excuse me. I'm sure they do more than that... right?). It's the type of show that really smart people enjoy. They are probably all blogging about how cool Linux is and how tricked out their geek sleds are. Me, I'm still thinking about Collective Soul and how deep down, I really would like to be on stage jamming on an electric guitar with them while the crowd cheers, "Yeah, Jason! Yeah!!!!" But alas, it was not I on the stage. (Please excuse the previous ADD moment... the official blog does not endorse ADD moments that come on throughout the blog for no apparent reason.)
Like I was saying, these guys really rocked. I was a little concerned that they would come in, and just sing a few token songs, collect their check, and check out. But that was not the case. They rocked and rocked much to the delight of this 37 year old who was fondly remembering teenage days of going to see Oingo Boingo and Depeche Mode in concert. I'm not quite as hip now. Nobody pulled out a lighter. There were just a lot of cell phones busily snapping photos. Boy things have changed. A girl in front of me was texting thousands of friends with one hand giving them an update on how cool the concert was... of course I doubt she saw much of it. And how do they text so fast with one hand? Man, I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous... But I digress.
So I was sitting watching Collective Soul perform, and I thought how cool it would be some day to have Professional Cable entertaining thousands of customers by bringing in some hip band to play. I then wondered if it would still be fun if my company were that big. Right now, I love my company. I know exactly what is going on with everything. I know what big accounts we are trying to land. I know what customers are behind on payments. I know the name of our UPS driver. It's a good size company. Not too big. Not to little. Big enough to take care of many very large accounts - many international. Yet small enough to service the local market. In my opinion it's the ideal size.
I enjoy sales. Because of the size of my company, I still get out in the field and see customers. I am not in a board room with shareholders. I'm out getting a feel for the market, talking to customers, and working with reps. I get a lot of ideas from customers. I take these ideas back back to the office, and then I implement the good ones.
So while Collective Soul was really unforgettable. I don't see Professional Cable bringing in a famous rock band any time soon. (All of our customers will be sad to read this) The good news is we will still have that local feel and great service that our customers expect from us. (I know that there is at least one customer out there saying "I'd give up a little of that great service for tickets to Collective Soul." To you I say... "Sorry!"... "Maybe we can get together and play Guitar Hero III instead." :)
Until next time -
Jason Bringhurst - The Cable Guy
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