{"id":730,"date":"2015-03-10T19:31:54","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T19:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/?p=730"},"modified":"2015-03-10T19:31:54","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T19:31:54","slug":"dirty-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/dirty-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"Dirty Jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A summary of something interesting I found out about Mike Rowe, host of Dirty Jobs. \u00a0The source for this article is an section answering a question\u00a0on Mike’s Facebook page:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheRealMikeRowe\/posts\/944287745581369:0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Mike started his television career in 1990, the QVC Channel was looking for new talent. Mike Rowe who “needed a job and thought TV might be a fun way to pay the bills” decided to go and audition. \u00a0He went to the specified location and after waiting for several minutes, he was brought into the audition and seated across from a man behind a large desk with a timer and a tripod camera. \u00a0Mike was asked to talk about something for eight minutes without losing it or making a fool of himself. \u00a0He asked what he would be talking about, this was the response given. \u00a0“The man pulled a pencil from behind his ear and rolled it across the desk. \u201c’Talk to me about that pencil. Sell it. Make me want it. But be yourself. If you can do that for eight minutes, the job is yours. Ok?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowe accepted the challenge, and the timer was set, the pencil was an ordinary, yellow number 2, sharpened pencil. \u00a0The camera began recording and the timer began to count, and Mike instantly began to talk. \u00a0He began by introducing himself, and saying: “I only have eight minutes to tell you why this is finest pencil on Planet Earth. So let\u2019s get right to it.\u201d \u00a0He found a piece of paper and wrote the word QUALITY in all capital letters, then showed it to the camera. \u00a0He discusses how the Dixon Ticonderoga number 2 pencil gives a better quality line than the #1 or #3 pencil, and is made from nice, safe graphite. \u00a0To emphasize safer graphite, he licked the pencil tip.<\/p>\n

He commented on how the yellow color makes the pencil easier to find on a desk, and how the shape was made for comfort. \u00a0How the non-circular shape was better for not causing your hand fatigue and how the pencil was designed to be able to write for hours on end. \u00a0Rowe commented on how the eraser would be attached completely even until the pencil was an “unusable nub.” \u00a0He commented on the American made quality, and the nice feel of holding a wooden pencil. \u00a0\u201cIn a world overrun with plastic and high tech gadgets, isn\u2019t it comforting to know that some things haven\u2019t evolved into something shiny and gleaming and completely unrecognizable?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After all of this, Rowe glanced at the timer, five minutes left. \u00a0He decided to shift gears, he discussed the “pencils’s impact on Western Civilization,” how Picasso and Van Gogh had done so many pencil drawings, and how Einstein and Hawking had written so many equations in pencil. \u00a0Comparing the pencil to a pen, Rowe said: “Pen and ink are fine for memorializing contracts, but real progress relies on the ability to erase and start anew.” \u00a0He relates \u00a0the ability of the pencil to Archimedes saying he could have made a lever large enough to move the world, but he needed a pencil to make the point.<\/p>\n

Three minutes left, Rowe moves on to personal recollections. \u00a0He talked about writing his name for the first time, writing book reports, writing love letters, and writing his first love letter in 6th grade. \u00a0This worked the clock down to 30 seconds, so he decided to wrap it up. \u00a0His final words were:\u00a0\u201cWe call it a pencil, because all things need a name. But today, let\u2019s call it what it really is. A time machine. A match maker. A magic wand. And let\u2019s say it can all be yours…for just .99 cents.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timer was at 0:00, the man came back around the desk, took the pencil and wrote “You’re hired” on the stationary. \u00a0A few days later, Rowe moved to West Chester PA and was selling on QVC. \u00a0A job he worked for three months on the Graveyard shift being “trained” although he notes he had no supervision.<\/p>\n

There is a lot to be learned from this, I think a big one is that one can sell pretty much anything. \u00a0If Mike Rowe can make a pencil look like the most innovative and incredible product in the world then anything can be sold. \u00a0The product has to be made appealing, has to be something needed, Rowe made the pencil appealing and created need by focusing on how much you can do with it and adding sentimental value. \u00a0This is an excellent sales example, I’m sure there are lots of other good aspects about the sale, any thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A summary of something interesting I found out about Mike Rowe, host of Dirty Jobs. \u00a0The source for this article is an section answering a question\u00a0on Mike’s Facebook page:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheRealMikeRowe\/posts\/944287745581369:0\u00a0 Mike started his television career in 1990, the QVC Channel was looking for new talent. Mike Rowe who “needed a job and thought TV might be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[41,42,9],"class_list":["post-730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mike-rowe","tag-pencil","tag-sales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":734,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}