My fiancée Guy and I, used to make a lot of friendly bets. If she said up and I said down......we’d put $5 on the outcome and roll the dice.
But losing a bet to Guy is no fun, and so we had to stop betting.
She’s the sort of winner that likes you to know she won! In-fact the last time she won a bet from me (which coincides with the last time she PLACED a bet with me) she left her winning $5 bill on her nightstand for a week! And no matter how many times I slipped it under her book….it made its way back to the top of the pile.
I appreciate that she would never go so far as to say “YOU LOSER!” But with the five dollar bill sitting there every freaking day for a WEEK.....she didn’t have to!
And that’s only ONE of the reasons I had to stop betting with her. The other was her propensity to win bets in unusual ways. Losing on a technicality is one thing....but constantly losing bets that way is a drag and so I decided:
No more betting!
But the other night, when Guy used the word “laxtivity” in a sentence, I smelled opportunity! I pride myself on having a sizable vocabulary and I had never heard that “word” before. Plus, it was late, she was sleepy and had already had a bourbon!
I liked my odds!
Through my snickering I offered a bet: “I’ve got $5 that says “laxtivity” is NOT a word!”
I was golden! As I offered my bet, I was already envisioning myself walking Guy into our local pub for dinner with a $5 bill taped to my forehead!
We laid out the ground-rules: if it’s in the dictionary, it’s a word. I almost felt bad taking her money like this.
Almost!
But a funny thing happened on the way to my victory parade!
Laxtivity turned up in the Urban Dictionary as “an activity you partake in when you’re bored and want to chill.” Suddenly, it no longer mattered if laxtivity is a word or not. We had a bigger issue to resolve.
“Isn’t the Urban Dictionary.....a dictionary?”
Every bet I’ve ever lost to her seems to start with a question like this!
“How can it not be a dictionary? IT’S GOT DICTIONARY IN THE NAME!”
It didn’t pay to argue. Besides, how could I prove her wrong? It’s not like the Oxford English dictionary under the word “dictionary” says “excludes social phenomena disguising itself as a dictionary.”
Of COURSE, laxtivity is not a word! So, I managed to be right and lose five bucks at the same time!
And now, for my next trick!
As it happens, I didn’t have time to spend that $5 anyway! I’ve been too busy getting ready to drop my new project on you!
You are likely reading this on February 12; exactly one week away from the drop of both my new podcast series and Instagram page which I produced for Benjamin Moore.
I love making podcasts and I think you’re going to both enjoy and learn from the ones I’ve got coming your way. We are going to start with two from Benjamin Moore Chairman and CEO, Dan Calkins. May as well start at the top! Besides, all this was his idea! I’m excited for you to hear the podcasts, but podcasts are only the beginning.
We’ve also got an Instagram page exclusively for Benjamin Moore retailers! I know you’re thinking “Mark, I’m not on Instagram and I don’t want to see pictures of your daughter’s meals!" But there's a lot more to our feed than pictures of Buck’s lunch!
Instagram is a great tool for delivering short and to-the-point messaging and that’s how we plan to use it. We are creating daily doses of information to help independent retailers; Benjamin Moore retailers, succeed. Using both short videos and simple graphical content, I hope to break your stores down into small pieces that are easy to understand so if any of our content feels right for your stores, its easy to implement.
With topics ranging from help with managing your accounts receivable, using social media to expand your brand, how to use a pricing strategy to increase your gross margins to using swag to improve your image (while getting Benjamin Moore to pay for it), I’ve made dozens of short videos, all a minute or less and designed to help improve your business’s performance.
And we get specific!
So, you are going to need to take a moment and open an account on Instagram!
And of-course, in addition to the podcasts and Instagram, there will be more blogging! While all of the Instagram posts and MOST of the podcasts are for “public consumption” (there WILL be podcasts that are available exclusively to Benjamin Moore retailers on the portal, behind the password), ALL the blogging on this new site will be private content for Benjamin Moore retailers only. So if you’re a Benjamin Moore retailer and you currently do not use the portal, it’s time to take three-minutes and sign up! Of-course Instagram is public so all you’ll need is an app and 30 seconds to set up an account.
I’ll be buzzing your pocket in no time!
I generally stay away from wagering, but Guy has seen all this work, and she is betting you’ll love it!
One week!
