Extraordinary Offer: Get One And Grow, Guaranteed!

My wife, Diana, and I took our twin girls to New York for the very first time during their Spring Break this year. Since our girls are in elementary school, most of our activities centered around family friendly venues and historical landmarks.

I was inspired to write this article today because we are giving our hard-earned money to businesses and US Landmarks that have developed out-of-the-ordinary value offers to customers, which inspired us to seek them out. I’d like to offer a few examples:

1. Delta’s Economy Comfort Seating for a little bit more…Our girls felt as if they were being pampered by sitting in the more spacious seating in Economy Comfort close to the first class cabin. My usually cost-conscious wife booked the slightly upgraded seats and said upgrading is a no-brainer for more comfort on our girls’ longest flight and first flight to NYC. Some feel that Economy Comfort is nothing more than an upsell—and it may be—but we bought it willingly and even sought the service out. The Delta Flight attendants serving the first class cabin even went above and beyond for our section and served the same snacks in the big basket to us as they did in first class. Our girls loved being able to take two or more of the snacks! Delta’s hospitality in Economy Comfort didn’t end with us, though. The flight attendants even recognized a neat elderly couple (who’d been married for 52 years!) for flying on an airplane for the first time in 27 years. I would say all of that is extraordinary. See https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/onboard-experience/delta-comfort-plus.html  for additional information re: Delta’s Economy Comfort offering. They say Comfort+ Means More, and in this case, it did for us!
2. Ellen’s Stardust Diner – According to an October 19th, 2015 article https://www.CrainsNewYork.com, there are 398 Diners in New York City. Well, I imagine you’d have to do something pretty extra-ordinary to standout and above that mountain of competition. Ellen’s Stardust Diner delivers just that every night! Ellen Hart-Strum and her entrepreneur husband were not new to the restaurant business when they opened Ellen’s Stardust Diner, where the entire waitstaff sings to the customers while keeping the singers’ hopes alive of making it on Broadway. Not only are the waiters and waitresses vocally talented, but they also have a great sense of humor. With colorful microphones in their hand, the performers parade around the restaurant and prance on the back of booths to stand above the patrons. We waited in line for an hour and 35 minutes to be seated on a Saturday night, and it was well worth the wait. The food was good diner food, but our family was treated to Broadway musical numbers and popular songs spanning across four decades, including this one. Hearing your waiter or waitress sing is not typical, and this value-added service brings customers in door by the bus load. Their word-of-mouth referral marketing must be off the charts. And that’s just how we found out about the place. Aimee Belcher, one of our talented lead graphic designers recommended—more like absolutely insisted—that we take our girls there. I strongly recommend that any family, or anyone else for that matter, visiting New York go to Ellen’s Stardust Diner. Check out their site at https://www.ellensstardustdiner.com Sorry, they don’t take reservations unless you’re a group over 25, and we were right behind three such groups, but the wait made our food taste even better.
3. Empire State Building – There is no better vantage point to see all of New York City than from the 86th and 102nd floors at The Empire State Building. They also deliver the building’s unique history with images and historical timelines of the build. It’s $32 for adults and $26 for children for the elevator ride and time to walk around outside the 1931-erected gigantic building of steel. Here are some extraordinary stats re: the Empire State building that are impressive even today:
   1. Elapse time to erect 87 stories including the basements: Just 25 weeks.
   2. Tonage Erected in Steel: 57, 480 Tons.
   3. Greatest Number of men employed on the steel project was no more than 350.
   4. The next time you visit the Big Apple, do what Harry (Tom Hanks) and Sally (Meg Ryan) did and visit New York’s Observation Deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. https://esbnyc.com
4. Arturo’s Coal Oven Pizza – This one is extraordinary and a personal favorite of mine. Primarily, I give Arturo’s credit for longevity. Their pizza is cooked in a coal-fired pizza oven and the taste is amazing and extraordinary. I can’t find a coal oven pizza place down South, so this qualifies as a unique offering. I first went to Arturo’s in September of 1995 while working with Speedo. My daily routine consisted of a chess lesson from a guy named Damian at The Chess Forum on Thompson, and then, I’d made the short walk down to Arturo’s to eat at the bar with the owners. They made me feel like a Pizza King. They’ve been making great-tasting coal oven pizza since 1957. Tell them Ford from Georgia and Alabama sent you. https://www.arturoscoaloven.com
5. Staten Island Ferry – It’s FREE and likely the #1 recommended tourist attraction in NYC. While you’re out on the water, you’ll enjoy a great water-side view of the city, the Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island. Staten Island has improved its public reputation through this service. Giving anything away for FREE, especially in the New York City area is extraordinary! It’s a must-do when you’re in NYC! siferry.com/
6. The Statue of Liberty – A historical landmark run by the US Parks service, the Statue of Liberty is a solitary, majestic place where we can all learn lessons about doing the right and extraordinary things from our Lady Liberty. The most interesting part of the story for me was that in 1885, New York World publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, came to New York’s financial rescue with a highly successful, six-month fundraising campaign. Over $100,000 was raised from 120,000 donors who gave less than a dollar each. That’s remarkable! New Yorkers back in 1885 must have had a tremendous amount of pride to want a colossus statue erected in their town. They understood the importance of building something extraordinary. https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/statue-facts
7. Ellis Island – 12 Million+ people immigrated to the US between the years 1892-1954, which is now known as the largest human migration in the history of our world. That immigration alone is extraordinary, and we’re still talking about it today. Invest the time to visit there: https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/ellis-timeline

You’ve probably noticed a lot of different types of businesses and venues in my article. They all have one common thread. They are all extraordinary and took an extraordinary effort to become successful.

 I encourage you as a business owner, marketer, operator or finance professional to attempt to build an extraordinary operation. If you do more, people will seek you out, and you will have more success. We simply can’t be successful by delivering efficiency. We need to do something different. As business professionals, we’re not bankers who simply make a margin on the US Treasury note rate. Instead, we have to do more to create something from nothing or at least more with less resources.

Be unique and you will win.

We help businesses every day find and build their unique service offering (USO) and unique selling proposition (USP) and we can do the same for your business, too! For more information on how to build extraordinary growth for your business, feel free to give me a call at (404) 775-0194 or send me an email at [email protected].

Be Extraordinary and WIN!

Ford