Four years ago, my wife Laura bought me a special fathers day gift:
A live concert ticket to see a band I'd been hoping to catch for a
long, long time. It was a cool summer evening at the Indianapolis
Deer Creek Theatre, an open air concert venue. On stage: Rush, one
of music's most enduring rock bands, on tour after a 4 year hiatus.

Rush consists of three musicians, but my attention was drawn to center
stage, where drummer Neil Peart - widely regarded as "the Michael
Jordan of Percussion" - displayed astonishing skill for three
unrelenting hours of musical virtuosity.

I had always liked Rush's music and admired Neil's percussion
in particular. Rush's music is intense, complex and abstract.
It is puncuated by constant key, lyric and time signature changes.
No two measures are ever identical. Peart weaves a complex tapestry
of fills, transitions, point and counterpoint with hairsplitting
precision and technical prowess.

For some reason I'd always just assumed that he was improvising
as he played. That notion quickly evaporated as I watched and
listened that night.

I roughly calculate that during those three hours of music, he played
over 100,000 "notes" on his drum kit, and what was not clear to me
before, just listening to CD's, was plainly obvious in person: Every
time those sticks hit the cymbals, drum skins or bells, it was 100%
memorized, planned and rehearsed, down to the millisecond. ALL of
it.

Quite frankly, I've NEVER seen any musician so focused and
concentrated as he was. It was as though the bass and guitar
player and his drums were the only objects in the entire universe.

The total effect was awe inspiring. The most spellbinding moment was
during a spectacular drum solo -- not a self indulgant orgy of
frenetic activity, but a ten minute performance of driving, eclectic
rythms and melodic skill. A montage of Fred Astaire and Ginger
Rogers film clips on the video screen behind him synchronized with a
three part composition. A mesmerized audience clapped in time with a
rock solid groove, as he punctuated energized night air with
perfectly executed, awe inspiring cadences.

If a world-famous, professional musician with 30+ years of
experience, millions of dollars of equipment and a likely excess of
natural talent not only shows up to work exquisitely, exhaustively
prepared and rehearsed, but ALSO works with such intense
concentration that it makes a remarkable impression on me from
the 28th row, then the rest of us mere mortals had better be
prepared when we show up to give a sales presentation.

Now don't get me wrong - you don't have to be anal about it. Actually
since sales is a two way conversation, and since the customer should
be talking MORE than you, there's bound to be improvisation. But DO
NOT 'wing it'! Even if Neal Peart was making it up as he went along -
- even if he was playing random requests from the audience of Beatles
and Beach Boys Cover tunes, he would still be operating with hundreds
of well-practiced rythms, transitions and fills, putting the larger
pieces together on the spot, and NOT having to think very much about
the granular details.

And so should it be for you. You should know the objections and your
answers. You should know all the elements of your message and your
road map. You should be able to take your presentation apart, put
it back together ten different ways, and start anywhere in the middle
whenever you wake from a deep sleep.

***

I'd like to introduce you to my webmaster, Vivek Samyal. Vivek
is the brains behind http://www.usedtapes.com, which 'under the hood'
is a pretty complex beast. He's a very skilled web designer,
programmer and database specialist who does conscientous,
quality work.

For the remainder of the summer, Vivek is available to help a handful
of clients. If you're interested in creating a new website, or
improving an existing one, Vivek can help.

He can build anything from a 2-3 page, simple site to something
elaborate and complex with live databases, memberships, and
interactive content.

Vivek is very patient. He'll always make sure you get exactly what
you're looking for, even if he has to re-work something a couple of
times. Plus he can help you with other issues like name
registration, hosting etc. etc. which a lot of people get hung up on
when they're starting out.

Here's what you should do right now:

Send an email to vivek with a detailed description of what you are
looking for, and he will give you a price and schedule estimate.
His email address is web@...

Vivek will probably only take on the first 2 or 3 people who get
to him first. He's already working on two different projects for
me, and he's got a growing family (baby on the way) which
will naturally cut down on the number of new projects he can
take. So if you want him to help you, you better email him
RIGHT NOW!

Have a great 4th of July weekend!

Perry