• What is your ultimate business travel story?

    Posted on December 19th, 2011 by and currently 1 commenting.

    I saw this post on Mashable. And it triggered a story from my very early years.

    BTW: I think it must have been about 20 years ago when this story happened. If you don’t know Merlin Olsen, the NFL Hall of Famer and FTD spokesperson, it might not make sense. If you do. Read on.

    Years and years ago, I was in New York with my then business partner, Mike Goot. We were editing a series of television spots for a bank in Georgia. Think me, four white shirt bankers and a slightly younger version of this guy:

    We were looking for something to do at night.

    Hmmm.

    Someone mentioned Blue Men Group. We took our chances and went up to the ticket office and got the last seats in the house. One of the seats was far removed from the other five. I took it. As I sat down to get ready for the show, I noticed this couple in front of me. One of them looked just like a director I had often worked with from Charleston. But I wasn’t 100% sure.

    What are the odds of seeing someone I know from South Carolina on a random Tuesday night in NYC. Right?

    So I decided to wait until intermission to call out his name and see if he responded. In the meantime, a rather large, older man had sat beside me with his loud, happy group of friends. Since the seats where crazy tight, this man nicely asked me, “Do you mind?” as he put his arm around me to stretch out a bit. I looked at him a little bit closer and HE actually looked sort of familiar. Then he said, “I am going to need to send you flowers after this show is over.” It dawned on me, he was Merlin Olsen. The very large football star turned actor who was had done a long stint of commercials for FTD Florists.

    Anyone remember him?

    I said what anyone would say, are you Merlin Olsen? So we started talking. He was really nice. And he introduced me to his family and friends. He also kept his arm around the back of my chair.

    During intermission I leaned slowly in to the row in front of me and I quietly asked, “Brian?”

    He (it was Brian) jumped, looked back at me stunned and said, “Robbin? Why are doing in New York with Merlin Olsen?”

    So that is my ultimate business travel story.

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    Don’t you love how hearing other people’s stories can inspire you to remember and share your own? Cordell quoted someone this morning and from memory it went like this:

    We like each other better when we tell each other our stories.

    Stories are how we connect as humans. And telling your organization’s stories is powerful for that very reason. Stories trigger emotional and spark sharing. Which creates connection. And word of mouth.

    So come on. Let’s share this morning. What is YOUR ultimate business travel story?
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  • http://www.FromThisSeat.com/ John

    Cool story. Small world. Still don’t think I would ever give the blue man group a chance.