Interesting.  A museum to the go-go “aughts” that we all lived through recently.  Big nice resort slung along the craggy coast of Palos Verdes near what Angelinos call “the south bay”.   Word has it that one of the big guns that left Starwood has the $500M note on it.  Desperate times.  Cheap rates for the time being.  Go get it.

In those same go-go aughts, we went to a lot of these types of resorts.  My fave being Hualalai on the Kona coast big island style.  Terranea wants to be that place.  Someday it might.  The polish isn’t there.  The Four Seasons allure and hushed quiet delivery of basically everything you do isn’t there.

The main difference between an acme named resort (anything without a badge of luxury) and a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton is just like the difference between the sound proofing being much thicker and what I call “small edges”.

You see, just (NOT) like you, I look along the baseboards as I walk around and I notice if the team got the small stuff.  At the Four Seasons, they always do.  At places like Terranea they are too busy paying the bills to get there.  I notice how many little kid band-aids I see along the edge of the pool.  The other guys never miss them.

I digress.

The visit was good.  The restaurants ok.  If you stay more than 48 hours, you get bored with “Nelson’s”. It has the veiw and firepit.  It also has a wait staff that is primarily “college I don’t care”.  Lots of waiting around to get some simple food.  But gosh oh mighty do you get a twing if you like or have anything to do with “Sea Hunt” and Mike Nelson’s travails as a scuba diving special-guy.  I loved that show.  My brother did too.  I sent a bunch of the picture of Mike to him while I was there.  We then watched a bunch of Hulu when we got home.  The old “Marine World” was situated on this same craggy coast years back and Sea Hunt used the aquarium for lots of underwater work.

The main bar was nice and twinkly with jazz but VERY expensive.  A single espresso is $5.  Watch for the double $10 one.  Whiskey neat $20.

I digress.

The boy lost his favorite bear there.  Put between the sheets to keep kid bro out of it.  I did my major topple everything in the room before I cleared out but never got between the sheets on his separate bed.  Awful but a lesson we had been trying to teach on all things that want to come out of the bedroom and follow us around.  This time, we gave in and of course catastrophe!

Called.  Emailed.  Dug around and called the basement departments. Almost drove there to get into myself.  Got a nice connection to the GM and she worked hard in all areas to find “Remy”. 

No dice.

Got a card today with $50 to ToysRUs.  Not the same but a very nice gesture.  The boy can have his favorite bear replaced…. or maybe a new DS game.   So, I’d say try Terranea.  For LA, it’s the best place to get away without driving 2 to 5 hours for Santa Barbara, Big Sur, San Diego, or north.

Other parts not to miss: The bird wrangler.  He has a golf cart loaded with a Hawk, an Owl, and a few other predatory birds.  Keeps the roofs clean ya know?  The pool for kids is good.  The slide so-s0.  Runs along the paths are good but the first time you will keep it slow.  Then go out again and get it on. Food?  Like I say, pretty good.  They had a seafood buffet one night.  Dunno how that makes them an “eco resort” — lots of waste of seafood and mini-desserts — but it was good, especially the King Crab.  (RIP – Deadliest Catch guy…)

My bet is on the DS game.

I have read his book “Peak” and have stayed at numerous different Joie de Vivre hotels.

Check it out. And then peruse TED if you haven’t before. Really good stuff.

Sir Richard is trying it.

I’d like to try too.

My mother-in-law came into town last weekend and we went through the whole wheelchair at the gate, Southwest bit.  Now, I like Southwest and I don’t agree that it’s like cattle.  I could care less.  I think you have to respect the fact that they have profits in a land of giant nuclear sized land mines.  They don’t charge for bags [yet].  They try to be good.  I used to watch the reality show starring Southwest.  So, even they had issues.

My dream airline is this:

1. Prices that make me a fair profit but COVER MY COSTS.  If that’s a $500 ticket from LAX to SFO, then so be it.
2. Extra flight attendants.  If the FAA says three minimum, I’m at four or five.  Happy people.  Haven’t worked in an airline?  Great.  You have?  Sorry. 
3. Great — not good – healthy food.  I will go to the Cordon Bleu and ask their brightest students to offer up great meals that will serve people on 45 minute flights or five hour flights.  I might ask you to do it for a very low cost, but you’ll be famous because right before meal time I will let you have 10 minutes of time on the screen to tell us why you are so great and how you came about creating the meal on the carts.
4. Non-obtrusive service.  As Sun Tzu says in “The Art of War” it’s the Art of Essence.  The Houston’s model. What people DON’T see is the most important.
5. No bag costs.  No food costs.  No nickel and diming whatsoever.  In fact, one of my first marketing gimmicks will be to go through the aisles and say “We will collect everyone’s wallet before take off and if you try to pay, you will have to go on a date with our ugliest flight attendant!”  [which we won't have].  Then I’ll send a beautiful flight attendant through the aisles with a tray to pick up any wallets anyone will give.  Otherwise, I’ll say keep it closed.
6. Money back guarantee.  If a weather or FAA issue slows us down, then sorry.  But if you think my gate agent sucks and she treated you like your 3d grade headmaster, then your money back.  I might also reserve the right to black list you from my airline if I think you are milking us.  After all, no one wants to fly with you again anyway!  It’s our way to clean the air of nasty airline passengers.  Go back to US Air.
7. Ground people that greet me at the door. Lots of them.  No one old gal with a clip board that can’t handle the mass.  A dozen good looking college students with great attitudes dressed in great stuff I buy.  I will also station another dozen in the bag claim and at capture centers where we will make sure that ANY need (maybe a restaurant suggestion or holding of your garment bag — who cares?) is met.  Except sex.  These people will be called “Charlie’s Gang”.  The Skycap or Redcaps will have something to definitely worry about.  I love Skycaps but it’s an old model and the airlines and airports hate them now.  I don’t say that.  A Skycap told me that.
8. Good pay.  I am charging enough to cover costs, but also pay my people.  Good pay = stickiness.  If that good looking college kid in my cool clothes gets spit on for eight hours, she may not leave.
9. Follow up.  Calls and emails (your choice to opt-out of course) to see if your next flight is in need of booking or simply “……how did the meeting go Mr. Jagger?”
10. Your entry here.                                                                                             

I was getting in the car today in a part of LA that is 15 miles from home.  I had been thinking that I’d call my hair stylist on the way home and try to “sneak in”.  She hates it when I do that .  Nice salon.  Been there for years.  Part of a big brand that I’ve been loyal to for more years.  Do a lot of business gabbing with the owner and I like her. But then I saw a new looking salon across the street. So,  I plugged in more quarters in and jay-walked to see how it checked out.  [I can do that b/c Pasadena got me on a jay-walk recently for $ and I have loaded my jay-walk bank I figure].

I viewed and smelled the scene from afar and then closer and closer.  [yes, smelled.  salons can't smell like old ladies.  they need to smell like cool product] I decided by the modern look and feel, I’d go in.  There was a few signs welcoming walk-ins too.

Met a guy at the counter and he took me in right away.  Anyway, the appointment went well and my baldness was masked and abated for another four weeks.  The guy was cool.  The haircut pretty good. The owner also cool.  She took my notes on a few of my old tricks like “pay what you want” and we discussed in detail how Groupon worked. 

Boy, well worth the effort.

My point of this post is that old thing I harp on all the time.

GET OFF YOUR PLANET.

Basically every success I’ve had has been the result of a planet departure.  Sometimes you go for a day. Sometimes you go for a long time and never come back.  But you gotta continue to go.

Someone I know recently said “Charles, you HAVE to be friends with and know everybody!” I’m glad he said that but it couldn’t be farther from the truth.  Those that get me say “Charles, it’s not the money in the sale that drives you, it’s the sense of the kill and the resulting experience”. 

Exactly. 

I didn’t set out to kill and drag home the info I wanted on Groupon, but it came about because I did what I always [try to] do — be nice and ask questions.  When you ask questions of people, it shows you’re a freaking human and you might care what they have to say.  If they have nothing to say, then there’s no loss but you’ve exercised your manners.

I may never see that salon owner again, but I do know that she will have a “pay what you want” event next Tuesday and do well by it.  It’s so much better to trade information than pay for it.  It was our secret little barter.  That’s exactly what I do.  It has nothing to do about knowing everyone.  Of course those folks are always the ones that call you to get a connection they need. LOL

The people that annoy us the most in life are those people that don’t get out and see what the other side is doing, especially if you have.  If you’re like some I know and you get yourself tangled in a political brawl or a sports team brawl, it’s probably because you – or they — haven’t seen what the other side has done, smelled, felt, and seen with their own eyes.  While these types of conversations are at least 1/2 emotionally driven, you can come out cleaner and smarter by having a sense of opposing EXPERIENCES.  Notice I didn’t say VIEWS.  I can have  very intelligent conversation about Groupon now which I need for current business.  At 3:35 I couldn’t.  Sure, I could have Googled it, but a first hand in person account is something Google can’t replace. [thank goodness]

Get out and scare yourself once a week.  I guarantee it will pay off.

You’ll like it.  You might love it.

http://bit.ly/dta8Qw

I sent this out by email earlier and it’s funny how much interest it provokes. Most comments were about how “there’s no customer service” anymore. I don’t agree. In fact, I’ve tried the “Peter Principals” today at drive-thrus, client calls, client visits, and at the car wash. I was even able to turn a few frowns around.   There are places like Houston’s and Mama’s Fish House to prove this theory wrong.  And guess what?  Even if every single transactional encounter you have is sour, it’s not your queue to lower yourself to their place in life.

And as Peter Shankman outlines, you get more shit done because people want to help you and reciprocate.  This reminds me of my friend Craig and how he would treat the smallest of servants as we rode around in taxi cabs taking care of business in New York.  Practically everyone got a “that’s a nice sweater and made for you” or “hey – those hi-tops are working!”  And boy did people dig it. I would work behind him picking up orders etc through the same avenues and because I was his friend, I got the same treatment.  It seemed to me at the time that the waters of Fifth Avenue and beyond just parted for him and then I realized why.  I can assure you that his doorman never lost his package!

Love flows people.  Negativity clogs. 

One thing that strikes me is that most people that responded that service is dead were people that haven’t had what I call shit jobs.

If you haven’t really dug into the trenches and “had” to work at a coffee shop, retail-shirt-folding-hell-work-every-Saturday job, you haven’t truly seen what the public is capable of.  I’m not ignoring that both sides of the register need help, because they do.   But it’s fun to do the experiment and see how powerful your words and actions really are. I used a friendly face at a local police station recently and my tickets were discharged.   Simple as that.

And of course, I ask all of you to continue to pay it forward.  One of my favorites is to pay for the coffee or happy meal for the person behind you in line.  Walk away.  Don’t think twice about it.  And certainly don’t gloat about it.

It feels awesome and it’s not about you.

My family experienced the Slice Truck in LA again yesterday.  I follow them on Twitter and we’ve chased them down twice.  It’s pretty good.

It’s one of those things that make you ask yourself repeatedly: “How come I never did this in college?”

Slice of Pizza.  Next to USC all day.  Delivery to dorms and frat parties.  A dream made in B-School heaven.  He had a multi-pizza order in play for a frat when we arrived.

There were two others there yesterday.  They were 1/2 as busy as the slice guy.  But people love choices.

In Venice on Saturday nights The Brig has about 20 parked outside for the drunk and weary revelers to peruse before the possible DUI.  Good idea.  Seems through some inside info I got, all the trucks are owned or leased from one company so they band together.

This is true niche.

There is no better niche example than this.  Your particular food, down to the last ingredient, is on separate wheels and in front of your door (possibly).  You can be sure that I am thinking of the next birthday party for my kid with the Slice Truck in the driveway.  It’s as if you are at your favorite restaurant and there are separate chefs for each person’s order and they are waiting to customize whatever you want. I see this ironing out like any fad and becoming a standard for the main ingredients: Pizza.  Dessert.  Tacos.  Then, the others might lose faith and roll up their doors or band together with the survivors.

It’s going to this – even at restaurants.

We also like CubeLA.  They deliver charcuterie and cheese tastings so well, you never want to order from the main event.  There process could be easily delivered through a smaller venue (although they only have 10 tables as is) or a truck.  Spitz is another place taking the street food from the middle east and presenting it in a quick format.

Give the people what they want.  Hold the excess and pomp and circumstance.

I’ve been testing eclectic 24 on @kcrw through apple tv and other means and it (literally) rocks.  Now, with any party, I’m going to just hit the radio stream and my whole house is full of continuous great music.  Very little talk.  No ads. 

Brilliant music in fact.

For you purists, I know I don’t own (most) of it, but that’s fine.  When you’ve got the likes of Raul Campos, Chris Douritas, Ann Litt, and Jason Bentley to make your playlists, why worry?  This whole thing is more effective if you can stream iTunes through your work or play environment.  One way is AirTunes but a better way is through Apple TV that just added the familiar iTunes radio stream recently.

This is NOT the same as your DirecTV run or some cable music channel.  KCRW is the mecca of all things great music.  It’s where the crappy cable channels steal their lists I’m sure.

I’ve been buying a lot of  their track lists recently as well.  This is great for my running ipod.  It grows as I get more near the St. George Marathon that I’ll run in October.  Check out all this stuff at kcrw.com.

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

By the new numbers, it seems Honda, Nissan, and Ford are getting the bulk of the cast-off business from Toyota thankfully.  These car companies serve up great product and they run good businesses. Yesterday’s tenuous day in Congress for Toyota and gang shows us that basically every congressman wants his mug on television so he can get more patriot juice for the mid-term elections.  This is really what this is about. It’s not about a bad product or a giant foreign company going to it’s knees before ultimately failing altogether.

The prospect of Jap-hating is not something this country can add to it’s plate.

I believe that, unfortunately, there are the same lies and deception going on at the other manufacturer’s HQ offices as there is at Toyota.   We might even find out sooner or later that the whole thing was leaked to the media by a mole inside Toyota working for one of the big 2. (yes, that’s right… Chrysler is just about gone too).

We also forget that automobiles are very complex things.  Every day, we ride around at 80 miles per hour with virtually no worry that we will sustain any major injury.  All this is delivered by thousands upon thousands of parts working harmoniously without fail and driven by computers that have 5-nine uptime.

Let’s settle down everyone and take a breath.

[Ironically, yesterday's news on the congressional hearings overshadowed the news that Hummer is officially gone.  Another great GM product that was sold and marketed solely on mega-consumption.]