 Do I look beauty-ous? Do I? Huh? New haircut, beard trim, found a new barbershop today. I've been watching a guy on YouTube who goes by the name of... Well, his YouTube is Greg Bailey, I think. I'll put a link in the description below to his channel, but I've been watching a lot of his videos. And I decided I'm going to start taking the beard thing a bit more seriously. No, I'm not planning on playing Santa in the near future. I'm not going that big. I just want to take better care of the beard and actually keep it even and trimmed and everything else. So I don't look like I'm some drunk in the 1880s and some Western. I'm just a little... You know, big scraggly beard. Anyway, so I've been going to one of those chain places. I won't mention it because I don't want to talk negatively about them. And they did a good job for just haircuts and stuff like that. But I wanted somebody that could actually take care of beards. So here I am at Rockford, Illinois, and I started looking around for a barbershop. And I've been kind of keeping my eye out for one for a while. And I finally found one called Nichols Barbershop. It looks like Nichols Barbershop, N-I-C-H-O-L-S. No apostrophe, just L-S. So I went in there and loved it right when I walked in the door. They had Mayberry memorabilia all over the place. And I was a huge Andy Griffith fan growing up. I love that show. Also very patriotic. I could see from some of the stuff that's on the walls and very God fearing. So which was pretty cool with me and my faith. And so waited my turn, got into the chair and treated me really well, asked me what I wanted. And they gave me a haircut, which is almost perfect. I think next time I'm going to let it go a little bit longer on the top. This is what I asked for, so I can't complain about it at all. But I think next time I'm going to leave it a little bit longer here in the front and top just because I like it that way. But the beard, they did a great job. They even showed me and it's really cool. There's just there's two ladies that work here. I mean, they specialize in haircuts and beards, but it's two ladies that run the shop. Linda and Hope and I got Linda and she actually showed me how to use a beard butter or beard balm. And it turns out I was doing it correctly, but I didn't know I was doing it correctly. So it was nice to be shown. So she actually did it and put it on me, which isn't isn't part of the part of the dealio. But she did. But anyway, the reason I'm coming to you is I wanted to talk to you about radio. Now, I know this. I know that's a jump from Beards, but I'm going somewhere on this. When I got in, they asked me what my name was and I told them Darren. That's what I put in the reservation under my appointment under Darren. Then they asked for my last name when I got there Marlar. Well, they recognize the last name because I used to host a morning show here in Rockford called Marlar in the morning. And it was on a it was on a Christian radio station called 101 QFL and they said, you know what, we we actually did a remote with you guys, you know, an on location broadcast where our radio station goes on location and broadcasts from that place. Well, we did that. We did one of those with you sometime back and you know what? That was the most effective promotion we've ever done in Rockford. I'm thinking, wow, that's I don't remember doing a remote at a at a barbershop. No, no time in my career since have I ever done a remote at a barbershop. No, no, it was you. I we remember the day. So we thought about it and it turns out the very first live broadcast that I did when I moved to Rockford in 2004, I wasn't the one that was in the barbershop. I was at the radio station making sure that everything was on the air talking back and forth with the guy that was at the barbershop. That's why I didn't remember it because I wasn't actually on location, but it was a remote broadcast. They remembered that from 13 years ago. They remembered that it was me on the other side of the microphone, not the person they met, but the person that was on the air that they were listening to. They remembered that they remembered that from 13 years ago, it was the best promotion they ever had. They remembered the name of the radio station. Not only that, but as I as there was a there was just a silence in the room for just a couple of minutes as they were doing something else. And I noticed in the background, they were listening to the radio station that I worked for from 13 years ago. And it was a Christian radio station playing Christian music. This is a barbershop. They take care of the guys with beards. These guys walk in with big, you know, sleeve length tattoos and nose piercings. And I mean, it can be a rough crowd, especially in Rockford. Rockford is not the not the nicest of places to live. I think of fourth most miserable place to live in America. Not kidding. I think I was actually voted that not too long ago. It's a danger more dangerous than Chicago when it comes to shootings per capita. So I mean, and it's interesting, though, that in that place, they're listening to the station that I used to work for. Now I don't know if they used to used to listen before that remote. But if they had had a bad experience, I can guarantee you they would not be listening to that station. And here they are 13 years later still listening to it. The reason I bring that up, that is the power of radio. If you are considering doing a promotion for your business, for your service, check out the local radio stations because and this is one of the reasons that I have stayed in radio ever since I got in since in since 1990, because I not only do I believe in radio and I enjoy the work, but I know that it's effective. And I can't say that for anything else. I've tried other other forms of advertising for my own business for, you know, online publications, advertising on Facebook, stuff like that, advertising on on on different websites, even websites that are geared towards the business that I'm in voiceovers and stuff like that. Radio is still the best medium so far. So if you've got a product or a service and you're thinking about advertising it, you want to talk to the local radio station and see what they can do for you. It's usually a lot more affordable as well and just imagine I still I'm still blown away. I'm still just like, I can't believe 13 years later, these two ladies still remember me, still remember the broadcast, remember that it was the best promotion they ever did, which surprises me. I would think if they was if it was so powerful that I'm surprised they haven't done it again on radio and they're still listening to the radio station 13 years later, unbelievable. That's why I do what I do. It's actually sort of confirmation that I'm in the right business.