"Gee, I don't
know," was my feeble reply.
I was trying to
sell custom name belt buckles for our family western business, Gold
Mountain Trading. My folks and I agreed that custom name belt buckles were
a place to focus our efforts. After decades in the fashion and accessories business,
we have gotten pretty attuned to what was coming as the next hot item, and all
signs pointed to custom name belt buckles as a big thing for at least the next
ten years. So why not a jingle? A jingle, indeed.
"Whad'ya mean,
you don't know?"
The Custom
Name Belt Buckles Song
"Well, Captain
… tell me if I'm wrong, but I bet it wasn't exactly easy trying to fit
the term 'custom name belt buckles' into a song. Am I right? I mean, 'custom
name belt buckles' doesn't exactly roll off the tongue easily."
The ball was now
in his court as I waited for his reply.
"You're right.
Fitting 'custom name belt buckles' into a catchy jingle wasn't easy, that's
for sure," he said.
"Exactly,"
I said.
"What?"
I admit to feeling
a little exasperation.
"Here's the
thing, Captain Crunch-nuggets: it sounds like it was difficult. It sounds
exactly like what happened; you struggled to get 'custom name belt buckles'
to fit in with music. It sounds like you had to crow-bar your way in. Custom
name belt buckles belt buckles are fun, and so is music. Pretty 'em together
and what have you got? It's not bippty-boppity-boo! It's what we in the business
world refer to as sales."
Viva Custom
Name Belt Buckles!
Christopher (I
wonder what his real name is?) looked dejected. But I didn't care. I had paid
this self-described musical dynamo a pretty penny to deliver a custom name belt
buckles jingle that would actually be effective. This was business - the custom
name belt buckles business, to be exact - and I wasn't about to let the sensitive
feelings of a non-starving musician get in the way of our goal to make custom
name belt buckles available to anyone and everyone. Viva custom name
belt buckles!
The minstrel and
I were seated on stools facing each other in his studio. He was wearing one
of the custom name belt buckles I made up for him as part of our deal and I
was wearing one of my own custom name belt buckles. He looked up at me through
his sadness.
"What do I
do from here?" he asked. "How do I write another custom name belt
buckles song?"
"How in the
heck am I supposed to know? Do I look like a musician to you? I'm a number cruncher
and a pusher of custom name belt buckles. Your business is music. You are the
professional."
Actually, I really
didn't believe that last sentence, at least at that moment. I mean, really,
how professional can one be when their response to their client is "what
do I do now?" I may be the world's largest dealer of custom name belt buckles,
but I'm not a psychologist. But I realized that life isn't so cut-and-dry, so
I gave in to the counselor temptation and actually offered my thoughts.
Writing About
Custom Name Belt Buckles
"Just start
writing," was my sage advice. "You know those search engine articles
I write for our website, GoldMountainTrading.com? I have no clue what they are
going to be about, so I just put down the first thing that comes to mind. And
then I write down the next thing that flows from that. These aren't literary
works of art, but they do what they're supposed to do. I just finished one today
about custom name belt buckles, as a matter of fact."
"Just like
that, huh?"
It wasn't much
to offer, so I penned out a few lyrics:
Custom name
belt buckles is who we are
Custom name belt buckles is what we do
Where do you go for custom name belt buckles?
GoldMountainTrading.com!
"Can you work
with this?" I asked.
The rest, of course,
is history. The Captain shunned me away to work in private, and delivered within
the week to GoldMountainTrading.com
one heck a catchy jingle, which has now been heard by more than 20 million people.
And sales of custom name belt buckles have never been better.
