This is the live recording of the first show recorded in studio live Sunday 04/25/2010 at 820AM WWBA. The first 6 minutes are lead-in commercials so jump those and any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Life of a pawnbroker….
I’m not really much for new things. I have flown planes, started businesses, eaten live eels and seen a midget and a donkey in a “show” and woken up on my motorcycle doing 80mph, so it’s hard to surprise me. If you give me a good wireless connection or a good non-fiction book you might not know I’m in the room with you.
Like you I am good at some really unusual things, and I hate stuff I’m no good at. Tonight I did the first radio show for the pawn shop and man that was really hard. If you have a fear of speaking in public don’t do that.
The night started auspiciously as when we arrived at the station the doors were locked. After calling our producer and learning he wouldn’t arrive until like 15 minutes before the show I decided it was time to get in the building. Let’s just say that Leathermen makes a great product and voila we are in. Then we can’t get the elevator to open and take us to the 10th floor. One nice cleaning lady later we are in the radio station.
From there as the time ticked closer to show time I got more and more apprehensive. When the show started all you get is someone in another room that points at you and the music stops and it’s you and who knows how many other people listening to you. Of course you imagine they are all professional radio critics just waiting for you to misstep.
To imagine what happens next is that you are sitting by yourself on a huge stage, then the curtains go up and it’s you and lights and you have to talk for an hour, 60 minutes, about something that interests you but not many others.
The phones don’t ring, and you have to keep speaking.
I made it through, but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. I learned something about myself tonight. I also forgot the rush of adrenaline you get from doing those things.
I hope you scare yourself every once and a while, it makes you realize you are capable of more than reading books.
You know how everyone’s job looks easy from the outside looking in? I could work my whole life and never come up with something this good. Unfortunately this spot raises the expectations of possible listeners to a level that might be hard to achieve but here it is anyway..
Ok sometimes I'm not the most friendly guy. I'm quiet and I'm 6'4" 270lbs to boot. Not what you call approachable, especially in the morning.
This morning before opening the store I go into the McDonald's next door and get some morning coffee. I'm in line behind a nice little old lady (NLOL) and her walrus/daughter. I notice that they are looking at the menu like they have never been to a McDonald's before. Great….. No biggie, I'm early and I have nothing to do for a hour.
So NLOL finally makes her life or death choice for the day and pulls out her coin purse and proceeds to dump everything out of it onto the floor. I mean everything……she had civil war coins in there. Of course everyone else including her 400lb daughter act like they didn't hear the 4000 coins. It sounded like a Vegas jackpot hit the floor.
Now contrary to my overall look and demeanor I really like old people. I especially like the ones that have cool stories about their life experiences. I have crazy old Aunts and my wife's family has some real characters still kicking. So I do the normal human thing and help her pick up her loot. All the while the daughter maintains her stunning concentration of the job at hand, getting her big breakfast ordered before 10:30. If she couldn't get her flapjack on, things might get ugly.
I really didn't think much of it….you will notice this pattern if you continue to read these posts.
About an hour later a guy walks into the store looks around, looks around, buys a bass guitar, smiles and leaves. No haggling, or bitching about scratches that the Hubble telescope couldn't see. Pays, smiles and hauls. My kinda guy. Again per my usual M.O. I think no further…
We had a good day not great. Wrote some loans, sold some junk, pawnbroker paradise.
So, I close up shop around 2pm and go back to McDonald's one more time for some sweet tea. Now I think that McDonald's sweet tea has crack in it. You can't convince me it doesn't. Until I see a spectrographic report on it, I think it's spiked. It is one of the best thing for one dollar, the only things that are a better value are:
- my opinion (free and good)
- a first class US postal stamp (nearly free, really good)
To my surprise the guy behind the counter, is the bass buyer and he is the manager of the store. He thanks me once again for the bass, then shares with me some interesting info.
Seems that everyone at McDonald's was very concerned with a pawn shop moving in next door. Everyone was convinced that it would be the death knell of the neighborhood. But to his surprise he has had 2 or 3 people now that have said very positive things about the pawn shop. He told me of his stereotypical view of pawn shops (bad, all bad) and that he had no desire to go into one. When I asked why he did he said, "when I saw you help that little old lady this morning I decided to give you a shot". Moral: You never know who is watching you in life, it pays to be nice, and sometimes you get free sweet tea. TimOK, so there are very few people that what they think of me really matters. My wife, children and my parents a few friends, that's really just about it. That little bit about me will explain my latest venture.
In almost any poll about what people fear the most, public speaking, is frequently the top result. Even more than death. Something else about me is that I have never had any aspiration to be famous or a public figure. So this latest idea is out of nature for me. To better understand this story though I have to take you back about 7 years.
I have a friend who owns a business in Largo called the Watch Studio. Ken Duval is a great guy and I was his daughters Track coach at the school that our children go to. Ken is the local goto guy for high end watches. Patek, Vacheron, Chronoswiss, real watches. Because of our love of all things mechanical, and horolistic we became fast friends.
One day at his store I met a guy by the name Al Leo. Mr. Leo owned/managed the local Buick, Saab, GM dealership. Huge dealership, 25 acres on US 19 in Pinellas Park. Al was a collector of watches but only because he could afford them. Not because he had a keen grasp of fine watches. While I was there I got into a discussion about the pros/cons of handmade watch movements and my general love of complicated Valjoux products.
While we were talking I mentioned to Al that I frequently listened to his Saturday morning radio show about his car dealership. This was a two hour show and it covered everything related to cars. During the show I noted Al never really seemed like he was selling or promoting his dealership. I mentioned that to Al and he gave me some of the best business insight I have ever heard.
Al went on to tell me that before the radio show his monthly advertising budget was over 40,000.00 per month. Once the show started it eventually went to ZERO, nothing, nada. In the car business advertising and it's effectiveness is literally life or death. He said that the by just talking to people and telling them how to get the best deal on a new vehicle he got to disarm people and their fear of buying a car. Just a simple show, Al would appraise their car and give them a price of a new car on the phone. Half the show was retirees calling in to tell everyone what great experience buying from Al was. People would call from all over Florida to trade with Al. It was the 3rd largest dealership in Florida and the largest volume Saab dealership in the US. I convinced myself that if I ever had a business that needed direct consumer contact I would get my own radio show.
Yes readers a Pawn Shop Talk Radio show.
So how do you get a radio show? You ask. Simple huh? I recorded two test shows. Then I sent them to WWBA 820AM in Tampa along with a short email asking for some guidance how to eventually have my own show. Surprisingly the next day I got a call from the station asking to meet. The story from them was the station owner has a Palm Beach station that has a 3 hour swap meet show, like Craigslist for radio. Now they are ready to try it in the Tampa area. That and with all the success of Pawn Stars on cable TV's History channel they thought it was worth a shot. So, starting in about a month on Sundays 7pm yours truly will have a 1 hour talk show about all things Pawn.
I hope it does well but like most things I try it has the potential to flame out horrifically. The plan is to give listeners and those that call some insight to Pawn Shops. Hopefully we have some callers and we can talk about their stuff and what it is worth. The station is heard from south Georgia to Miami. Same idea as Al's show, no gigantic promotion of the Pawn Shop just a way to go to the shop without having to leave the house. Hopefully they will see that it isn't a creepy place full of criminals.
Those close to me know that I am blue green color blind. Not really a big deal but it is something to blame for my "unique" fashion sense. Whenever people, especially children learn that I am color blind we play a game I call, "what color is this". It's a fun time and it generally goes like this. I can tell people or they find out about my lack of color vision and I get an hour of, "what color is this, what color is that?".
I tell you this because I am a student of human nature. I like trying to analyze why people do things and apply the observations to understand what people will do next. I know when the game starts it's just curiosity because most people could never understand not being able to see them. Trust me I have been on a color intensifier at the doctors office you should really appreciate color vision.
What this has to do with a radio show is that when people find out I have a Pawn Shop it is the same reaction. I get an hour of, "what is the strangest thing in the shop?, are the people weird?, how much is ______ worth?
People are curious animals, not quite enough to go into a Pawn Shop sometimes though. The National Pawnbrokers Association says that only 3 out of 10 people have ever been in a Pawn Shop. So I am going to take the shop to them. The merchandise, people and stories. Every Sunday 7pm 820AM radio. Maybe the show is interesting, maybe not. All I know is that I'm not going to wake up 40 years form now too old and tired and wish that I had tried it. I hope you'll listen, and even call. Maybe we both learn something.
Well today I got the point of sale system installed. It’s called Pawnmaster and it basically does all the hard work for you. Keeps you legal, reports, gun log etc. I have scheduled 8 hours of training lined up for tomorrow. Pawn university in a day…….wow.
Got the jewelry testing and display equipment today and finally got the AC working. Now I basically have a 5000 sq. ft. store with almost zero mechanidise and 1 employee who has never been in a pawn shop (brother in-law) until recently.
I am a retail genius.
We did have a couple of real characters walk in off the street today and look at the guitars. I didn’t have a way to sell them anything yet so I didn’t push, it was encouraging though. We are going to use the internet and telemarketing to get foot traffic going. Between the website www.bigtimspawn.com and calling craigslist.com and calling ads from the local fish wrapper we hope to get 30 pairs of feet over the threshold everyday, that is the goal.
I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel, although this has taken much longer than we hoped I hope to report my first sale and pawn by the end of this week!
As a closing note, regardless of how much money and experience and business acumen you have I don’t think this would have been possible without the support of my wife. It’s always been MY dream to be a pawnbroker not hers, I love her more than ever for helping me make it attainable.
In this pic from left to right is an Epiphone DR1000, a Ibanez RG120, Fender Starcaster (great sounding cheap guitar), the bass is a Ibanez, the mandolin is an Epiphone MM300, then the almighty Epiphone Casino for you Beatles fans, and finally a solid body gold metallic Gretsch electromatic. How about that selection for a pawn shop!
We got our first delivery today of guitars and some of them want to come home with me! In this picture you will see a Fender 290sce that has big sound and builtin fishman preamp with tuner and phaser! Next to that is a Takamine eg333 with beautiful maple top and then a really cheap fender 12 string. Further to the right is an awesome Gretsch semi-body Electromatic w/Bigsby and a lot of attitude. The bass is a Schecter Stilleto. Of couse you can see the empty cases but not for long.
OK now I’m real trouble, I have an FFL and I can can mess you up! What that means is a I can buy and sell most handguns and long guns. Paperwork is crazy but it is worth it. One of the advantages is that you get the best pricing on guns but if you mess up the paperwork, it’s your ass.
The guys over at the ATF where you get the license are the best. Yah it is a body cavity search but if you are serious about guns you get the license.
