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Yes, MR. Mayor, thanks for asking.

I attended the Partnership 2020 / Nashville Chamber Event this morning. Representatives from the city were well attended with the Mayor Karl Dean, Randy Goodman (Co-chair of the Music City Music Council), and senior leadership from The Recording Academy (you know, the Grammy guys??!!).

There was a lot of talk about multiple successes our lovely city of Nashville have accrued (hit show on ABC, Top rankings for best-start-up, music scene, etc, etc) But the big talk of the morning was the landing of the first EVER Grammy Nomination Concert to occur outside of LA. (Side note, Nashville was home to the big Grammy event in 1973, making us also the only city to host the BIG event other than NY and LA...the past is precedence and more will come).

Anyhoo, they spoke of the multiple things that occurred to bring the historical #grammynom (as the Twitterverse is calling it) to our town. But there was one thing that truly stuck out....

Mayor Karl Dean, as the first step in the process, asked for the business. He took a stab at Salesmanship 101 and asked to win something that no one up to that point seemed to have even thought of. "Bring it here....look around at what we are doing. The opportunity is here, in Nashville." (paraphrased).

This seemingly simple thing is often missed by the best of salespeople. Start succinctly, and let the client/prospect know "I want X, and I am committed to win." It can sometimes be a bit uncomfortable, the forwardness of it.

But tonight Nashville hosted one hell of a shin dig, historical in its move from LA, and one part of a tidal wave of nationwide publicity that Nashville continues to receive.

There is an entire team of Chamber, P2020, Econ Dev folks that were in the mix....many players in the music biz surely played their parts....it was a large and successful effort.

But it all started with Mayor Dean, and the novel idea to "Bring it here." Kudos, Mr Mayor.

And I'll be looking for you on the Shelby Bridge as you make your wheeling and dealing, secret, high pressure phone calls.

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