realized this was too good to pass up. I decided to order a gross and emboss the phrase “The Boca Beanie” across the front and give them to current and potential clients.

I was amazed at the overwhelmingly positive response. Clients were falling all over themselves spinning the little propellers absurdly standing atop their heads. I relayed this information to my marketing department and after some further consideration; they choose to follow my idea and purchase 25,000 propeller beanies. When my sales staff and I started giving them away at the show, the response was overwhelming. Boca had the hottest giveaway and the most booth traffic at the show, even more than Microsoft and IBM! Lines of people sneaked through the floor of the presentation hall, blocking other booths, security had to be called d for crowd control, waiting to get to the Boca booth to get their hands on a “Boca Beanie”. As I frantically tried to demonstrate my products, and as an overwhelmingly number of people crowded around

I recently found myself being burned out at work and so I decided to instill some much needed HUMOR into my personal and professional life. I had been a sales executive for the last 15 years, I was making a very comfortable living and everything looked great on the outside, but on the inside I was certainly doing more crying than laughing. I was on the rode traveling 4 days per week, my marriage was on the rocks and I believe I was suffering from a mild case of depression. That’s when a chance encounter with a stranger changed my life.

At the time, I was employed as a Sales Director for Boca Research and I was responsible for our company’s booth at Comdex in Toronto Canada, the largest computer show in the country. I flew up a few months early to interview several special events companies to develop ideas and a theme for the show. I had always used humor as an effective business and communications tool and I wanted to employ a firm that would invent a creative and fun theme and promotional campaign for the trade show.

I interviewed 3 firms and decided on one that came up with the idea of a circus theme. They suggested a 3 ring circus venue with circus performers that would stroll through our space and speak with clients and perform product demonstrations. One of the performers and I struck up a close relationship during the show and started doing product demos together. His name was Jim Ince. Jim was a seasoned performer that studied at the Sorbonne in France and was very well known in the Toronto Area.

That night I invited Jim to dinner to become better acquainted and pick his brain for some creative ideas. I mentioned to Jim that I really enjoyed performing with him and I wanted to develop my improvisation skill. Jim knew I lived in Chicago, IL and he suggested that I look into taking some classes at Second City. After I returned from the show I called The Players Workshop of The Second City and signed up for their 2 year program,”Creative Expression through Improvisation”. The program took us through the creative process of Improv, culminating with the students writing, directing and producing our own “Saturday Night Live” show on The Second City Main stage. This was truly a tremendous experience and I learned so much. But what I really learned was that I truly had a gift and passion for Imrov and I wanted to take my life in a new direction.

My company had also agreed to participate in the world’s largest computer show, COMDEX. This international trade show is held in Las Vegas every fall ands easily attracts over 3 million people in a one-week period. This particular year, I was charged with running the Boca both. In additional to all the other duties associated with the show set-up and booth management, I was assigned to provide an interesting giveaway item to attract people to the booth.

I put on my creative sales hat and thought long and hard about what would be an innovative, creative and cost-effective way to get client and media attention. I had been racking my brain one evening and came up with only a few lackluster concepts, so I took a break and went out to dinner and a movie with my wife and some close friends. After dinner, I had some time to kill before the movie started so we went for a walk.We happened to come across a novelty store, wandered in and took a look around. One particular item caught my eye – a propeller beanie sitting on a shelf between a pair of Groucho Marx glasses and a bucket full of unidentifiable gadgets. This was an absurd little hat – too small to fit a typical human head – with a propeller boldly affixed to the top. My creative intuition told me I must wear this cap. To the chagrin of my wife, I wandered around the store looking like a complete fool, but I was struck by a thought: “Technical People” are commonly referred to as “Propeller Heads” maybe there’s a tie-in!”

This was not just a new way to amuse myself and embarrass my wife; this would be an excellent industry related gimmick! After checking into the price, I realized this was too good to pass up. I decided to order a gross and emboss the phrase “The Boca Beanie” across the front and give them to current and potential clients.

I was amazed at the overwhelmingly positive response. Clients were falling all over themselves spinning the little propellers absurdly standing atop their heads. I relayed this information to my marketing department and after some further consideration; they choose to follow my idea and purchase 25,000 propeller beanies. When my sales staff and I started giving them away at the show, the response was overwhelming. Boca had the hottest giveaway and the most booth traffic at the show, even more than Microsoft and IBM! Lines of people sneaked through the floor of the presentation hall, blocking other booths, security had to be called d for crowd control, waiting to get to the Boca booth to get their hands on a “Boca Beanie”. As I frantically tried to demonstrate my products, and as an overwhelmingly number of people crowded around

gn for the trade show.

I interviewed 3 firms and decided on one that came up with the idea of a circus theme. They suggested a 3 ring circus venue with circus performers that would stroll through our space and speak with clients and perform product demonstrations. One of the performers and I struck up a close relationship during the show and started doing product demos together. His name was Jim Ince. Jim was a seasoned performer that studied at the Sorbonne in France and was very well known in the Toronto Area.

That night I invited Jim to dinner to become better acquainted and pick his brain for some creative ideas. I mentioned to Jim that I really enjoyed performing with him and I wanted to develop my improvisation skill. Jim knew I lived in Chicago, IL and he suggested that I look into taking some classes at Second City. After I returned from the show I called The Players Workshop of The Second City and signed up for their 2 year program,”Creative Expression through Improvisation”. The program took us through the creative process of Improv, culminating with the students writing, directing and producing our own “Saturday Night Live” show on The Second City Main stage. This was truly a tremendous experience and I learned so much. But what I really learned was that I truly had a gift and passion for Imrov and I wanted to take my life in a new direction.

My company had also agreed to participate in the world’s largest computer show, COMDEX. This international trade show is held in Las Vegas every fall ands easily attracts over 3 million people in a one-week period. This particular year, I was charged with running the Boca both. In additional to all the other duties associated with the show set-up and booth management, I was assigned to provide an interesting giveaway item to attract people to the booth.

I put on my creative sales hat and thought long and hard about what would be an innovative, creative and cost-effective way to get client and media attention. I had been racking my brain one evening and came up with only a few lackluster concepts, so I took a break and went out to dinner and a movie with my wife and some close friends. After dinner, I had some time to kill before the movie started so we went for a walk.We happened to come across a novelty store, wandered in and took a look around. One particular item caught my eye – a propeller beanie sitting on a shelf between a pair of Groucho Marx glasses and a bucket full of unidentifiable gadgets. This was an absurd little hat – too small to fit a typical human head – with a propeller boldly affixed to the top. My creative intuition told me I must wear this cap. To the chagrin of my wife, I wandered around the store looking like a complete fool, but I was struck by a thought: “Technical People” are commonly referred to as “Propeller Heads” maybe there’s a tie-in!”

This was not just a new way to amuse myself and embarrass my wife; this would be an excellent industry related gimmick! After checking into the price, I realized this was too good to pass up. I decided to order a gross and emboss the phrase “The Boca Beanie” across the front and give them to current and potential clients.

I was amazed at the overwhelmingly positive response. Clients were falling all over themselves spinning the little propellers absurdly standing atop their heads. I relayed this information to my marketing department and after some further consideration; they choose to follow my idea and purchase 25,000 propeller beanies. When my sales staff and I started giving them away at the show, the response was overwhelming. Boca had the hottest giveaway and the most booth traffic at the show, even more than Microsoft and IBM! Lines of people sneaked through the floor of the presentation hall, blocking other booths, security had to be called d for crowd control, waiting to get to the Boca booth to get their hands on a “Boca Beanie”. As I frantically tried to demonstrate my products, and as an overwhelmingly number of people crowded around

rogram took us through the creative process of Improv, culminating with the students writing, directing and producing our own “Saturday Night Live” show on The Second City Main stage. This was truly a tremendous experience and I learned so much. But what I really learned was that I truly had a gift and passion for Imrov and I wanted to take my life in a new direction.

My company had also agreed to participate in the world’s largest computer show, COMDEX. This international trade show is held in Las Vegas every fall ands easily attracts over 3 million people in a one-week period. This particular year, I was charged with running the Boca both. In additional to all the other duties associated with the show set-up and booth management, I was assigned to provide an interesting giveaway item to attract people to the booth.

I put on my creative sales hat and thought long and hard about what would be an innovative, creative and cost-effective way to get client and media attention. I had been racking my brain one evening and came up with only a few lackluster concepts, so I took a break and went out to dinner and a movie with my wife and some close friends. After dinner, I had some time to kill before the movie started so we went for a walk.We happened to come across a novelty store, wandered in and took a look around. One particular item caught my eye – a propeller beanie sitting on a shelf between a pair of Groucho Marx glasses and a bucket full of unidentifiable gadgets. This was an absurd little hat – too small to fit a typical human head – with a propeller boldly affixed to the top. My creative intuition told me I must wear this cap. To the chagrin of my wife, I wandered around the store looking like a complete fool, but I was struck by a thought: “Technical People” are commonly referred to as “Propeller Heads” maybe there’s a tie-in!”

This was not just a new way to amuse myself and embarrass my wife; this would be an excellent industry related gimmick! After checking into the price, I realized this was too good to pass up. I decided to order a gross and emboss the phrase “The Boca Beanie” across the front and give them to current and potential clients.

I was amazed at the overwhelmingly positive response. Clients were falling all over themselves spinning the little propellers absurdly standing atop their heads. I relayed this information to my marketing department and after some further consideration; they choose to follow my idea and purchase 25,000 propeller beanies. When my sales staff and I started giving them away at the show, the response was overwhelming. Boca had the hottest giveaway and the most booth traffic at the show, even more than Microsoft and IBM! Lines of people sneaked through the floor of the presentation hall, blocking other booths, security had to be called d for crowd control, waiting to get to the Boca booth to get their hands on a “Boca Beanie”. As I frantically tried to demonstrate my products, and as an overwhelmingly number of people crowded around

g my brain one evening and came up with only a few lackluster concepts, so I took a break and went out to dinner and a movie with my wife and some close friends. After dinner, I had some time to kill before the movie started so we went for a walk.We happened to come across a novelty store, wandered in and took a look around. One particular item caught my eye – a propeller beanie sitting on a shelf between a pair of Groucho Marx glasses and a bucket full of unidentifiable gadgets. This was an absurd little hat – too small to fit a typical human head – with a propeller boldly affixed to the top. My creative intuition told me I must wear this cap. To the chagrin of my wife, I wandered around the store looking like a complete fool, but I was struck by a thought: “Technical People” are commonly referred to as “Propeller Heads” maybe there’s a tie-in!”

This was not just a new way to amuse myself and embarrass my wife; this would be an excellent industry related gimmick! After checking into the price, I realized this was too good to pass up. I decided to order a gross and emboss the phrase “The Boca Beanie” across the front and give them to current and potential clients.

I was amazed at the overwhelmingly positive response. Clients were falling all over themselves spinning the little propellers absurdly standing atop their heads. I relayed this information to my marketing department and after some further consideration; they choose to follow my idea and purchase 25,000 propeller beanies. When my sales staff and I started giving them away at the show, the response was overwhelming. Boca had the hottest giveaway and the most booth traffic at the show, even more than Microsoft and IBM! Lines of people sneaked through the floor of the presentation hall, blocking other booths, security had to be called d for crowd control, waiting to get to the Boca booth to get their hands on a “Boca Beanie”. As I frantically tried to demonstrate my products, and as an overwhelmingly number of people crowded around

realized this was too good to pass up. I decided to order a gross and emboss the phrase “The Boca Beanie” across the front and give them to current and potential clients.

I was amazed at the overwhelmingly positive response. Clients were falling all over themselves spinning the little propellers absurdly standing atop their heads. I relayed this information to my marketing department and after some further consideration; they choose to follow my idea and purchase 25,000 propeller beanies. When my sales staff and I started giving them away at the show, the response was overwhelming. Boca had the hottest giveaway and the most booth traffic at the show, even more than Microsoft and IBM! Lines of people sneaked through the floor of the presentation hall, blocking other booths, security had to be called d for crowd control, waiting to get to the Boca booth to get their hands on a “Boca Beanie”. As I frantically tried to demonstrate my products, and as an overwhelmingly number of people crowded around me, I yelled ““Be cool, don’t be a fool and get your free Boca Beanie”. It wasn’t long before the media got wind of the beanie. Before I was done spinning my propeller, I was interviewed on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, featured in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and in all the industry trade publications.

This was undoubtedly the most effective sales tool I had ever employed-simple, fun and a little wacky. Most important, the inquiries and sales orders that followed were highly impressive! We set a company sales record because of the “Boca Beanie”. Humorous ideas strike at the oddest times- you can’t force a great idea, it’s born from your creativity and attention to the world around you. A recent survey published in a major business publication stated that “of over 700 CEO’s, over 98% of them indicated they would much rather hire somebody with a good sense of humor than somebody without one.”

So, if you are scratching your head looking to solve a business problem, look to humor, it can pay huge dividends and you can have a few LAUGHS in the process!!!