Notes from My Journal:
And an Unexpected Marketing Opportunity for Paradise Palms
I had a visit with SA, my chiropractor, whom I haven’t seen in years. I wanted to check him out to make sure he would still be there for me when I needed him because I had just found out that Dr. B, my longtime doctor, was retiring at the too-young age of 65. I was shocked. I felt abandoned. So, I made the appointment with SA, half hoping he would look youthful and decades away from retirement and the other half hoping that, at 75, I looked better. The day came and I was happy to see that, aside from the fact that his hair had grayed, he looked vital and strong. I noticed that his appointment calendar was maxed out at four patients an hour for eight hours straight five days a week at $45 an hour. “$45 an hour! Is that all I’m paying you?” I said. “I pay my Jiu-Jitsu trainers twice as much to break my body into pieces.”
My two favorite experiences at Paradise Palms, the botanical and sculpture garden I’ve been building in West Delray Beach, is seeing adults amazed by how many rare and beautiful plants we have to offer and seeing young children playing in “Kid’s Town.” Kid’s Town is a collection of a half-dozen buildings, including a school, a General Store, and three little houses that are equipped with kid-sized furniture, appliances, and other things one would expect to find in a real house but much smaller. For several years, I’ve been toying with the idea of finding someone to market Paradise Palms to groups to help pay the $500,000+ per year that it costs to keep the place open. I’d interviewed a half-dozen people, tried out one or two, but hadn’t found anyone that could move the needle. Then E appeared. She had been invited to a birthday party at Kid’s Town and decided she wanted to help us promote it. She went right to work, initially without even asking my permission. By the time I met her, she had produced a viral video that got 9,000 hits, made dozens of appointments, and sold six tours. E is a very rare bird – a person who has the rarest and most essential business skills: She’s both a Starter and a Grower (see today’s main essay, below). And if I can make the right deal with her, she’s going to put our little botanical garden (and Kid’s Town) on the map.
