Pac-West Meeting is Broadcast on Fully Threaeded Radio
Wow. Sometimes you take a big swing at a pitch and sometimes you connect. Fully Threaded Radio took a swing by broadcasting a panel discussion that was held by the Pacific-West Fastener Association and I would say they hit this one out of the park. A long, ball, deep into center field...way back.. home run - and without the use of steroids!
To give credit where it is due, the Pac-West organization came up with a great idea of having a panel discussion where several industry veterans assembled and exchanged stories of their many years in the fastener industry. And, although the discussion was titled "Lessons From the Past", it might have been more accurate to call it "War Stories from Some Seasoned Fastener Veterans". The panelists paid tribute to Mel Kirsner by recalling a series of humorous encounters with the man for whom the Pac-West Golf Outing is named. I never had the pleasure of knowing the gentleman but the panelists really paint a vivid picture of the man through their tales. This is really an enjoyable discussion to listen to and one of my favorite Fully Threaded Radio broadcasts.
What's interesting is the fact that every fastener association has its share of industry veterans who would also have stories to share. And, there might even be a few "lessons" given along the way. But for me, lessons or no lessons, it is certainly enjoyable to hear the names, companies and travel tales of men and women who have been contributing to this industry their entire career.
Great show gentlemen. If you have not yet listed to Fully Threaded Radio, make this broadcast your first. Once again, go to www.fullythreaded.com. You can listen from your computer or download it from I-Tunes.
To give credit where it is due, the Pac-West organization came up with a great idea of having a panel discussion where several industry veterans assembled and exchanged stories of their many years in the fastener industry. And, although the discussion was titled "Lessons From the Past", it might have been more accurate to call it "War Stories from Some Seasoned Fastener Veterans". The panelists paid tribute to Mel Kirsner by recalling a series of humorous encounters with the man for whom the Pac-West Golf Outing is named. I never had the pleasure of knowing the gentleman but the panelists really paint a vivid picture of the man through their tales. This is really an enjoyable discussion to listen to and one of my favorite Fully Threaded Radio broadcasts.
What's interesting is the fact that every fastener association has its share of industry veterans who would also have stories to share. And, there might even be a few "lessons" given along the way. But for me, lessons or no lessons, it is certainly enjoyable to hear the names, companies and travel tales of men and women who have been contributing to this industry their entire career.
Great show gentlemen. If you have not yet listed to Fully Threaded Radio, make this broadcast your first. Once again, go to www.fullythreaded.com. You can listen from your computer or download it from I-Tunes.
Totally agree. Best show they have done so far. Hope they are able to do more of these in the future.
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T.S. - Thanks for that very kind review! We invited FTR listeners and FastenerTalk readers to come up with their own lessons based on the Pac-West segment. Actually, any fastener-related lessons would be good to hear. Absent that, a few fishing tips would work too.
Lots of room for more home runs here!
Here's a lesson: If you're going to make deliveries with your surf board and girlfriend in the truck, make sure you own the company.
Thanks again!
Eric
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Honestly. The Barry Porteous segment about calling on Mel was priceless. Today, Barry is a well known, well respected executive in our industry. It was great that he was willing to share that story from his more youthful, carefree days. Very funny.
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I will share one "lesson" I learned as a young traveling salesman. Years ago, I was working on a huge piece of business and everything was being negotiated. Cost, freight, cost of certs...you name it. The distributor had a ton of business so every supplier was coming in to make their presentation. We knew it was a very competitive situation. The company I was working with had a lot of the existing business but this distributor was just about to bust wide open. They had several new contracts and would be buying a lot of fasteners. A whole team came in for the presentation including the president of the company I was working with. We started the meeting with all the involved parties gathered in a big conference room. After about ten minutes the owner/president of the distributorship signaled to the president from our company and said, "Let's leave the boys alone to hash this out. I've got something I want to show you."
Twenty minutes later our president came in and we met privately and he said, "Don't lower our costs one cent. He just showed me blueprints of the new building they are moving into and I'm not paying for his f'ing Taj Mahal".
Neither gentleman is in the fastener business today and the names and faces of the companies have changed , so I feel OK sharing that story. But it has stuck with me for 20+ years. And, in the end, we did keep and grow our business with that distributor.
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enjoy the ride, and keep laughing!! we should all be so lucky to have good memories told about us and shared among business associates who we could also consider to be friends. let us know how the fish are biting!!!
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I really enjoy fully threaded radio and the TS blog. I do have a suggestion. I listen to many pod casts and read a lot of blogs and find many "Small bites" are better than large ones! So, here are my suggestions; break FTR into 10 to 15 minute bites and I believe more people will listen. Second, I wish there was a feedback section or a questions section and then a discussion is created in addition to the FTR inf
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