There are some people you see & just can’t forget.

• These peo­ple make an impres­sion on you with their out­ra­geous fash­ion style.
• Or they are extreme­ly like­able because of their gen­uine, dynam­ic personality.
• Per­haps they blow you away with out­stand­ing cus­tomer service.
• Or maybe they are just the most intel­li­gent per­son in the world.*

But what if you meet someone who is all of the above? 

Well, I did meet that per­son. His name is Saul Colt. & this is what he wears:

To match these:

As worn by Saul (he’s on the left):

Why is this guy so memorable?

I got to know Saul near­ly ten years ago, as some­one who real­ly cared about find­ing a solu­tion to a quirky prob­lem I was hav­ing with my timekeeping/​billing account, which is Fresh​Books​.com (whom I’ve hap­pi­ly been with over ten years). At the time Saul was on the Fresh­Books staff, as their mar­ket­ing genius & all-​around keep-​the-​customer-​happy guy.

A year or two lat­er, I received an invi­ta­tion to attend a din­ner with fel­low Fresh­Books users in a trendy Hol­ly­wood restau­rant (named Ketchup — red, of course). Din­ner was excel­lent & meet­ing oth­ers who loved Fresh­Books as much as I did was fan­tas­tic. The Fresh­Books crew was there, too, includ­ing Saul Colt. Unbe­liev­ably, he remem­bered me from our short online chat a cou­ple years ear­li­er. But what real­ly blew me away (and made Saul unfor­get­table — besides his glass­es & ten­nis shoes, of course) was his heart­felt response when I divulged that I prob­a­bly should­n’t be a guest at their expen­sive din­ner, as I was still at the free lev­el of ser­vice. He said, “We’re just real­ly glad you’re using Fresh­Books & thrilled to have you join us.” I will nev­er for­get that & I’ll nev­er for­get Saul.

(Short­ly there­after I was using Fresh­books to prac­ti­cal­ly run my busi­ness, & I was get­ting paid on time like nev­er before. I even­tu­al­ly signed up for the paid account, & for $14 per month it’s been my best invest­ment. If you want to know more about them, drop me a line or vis­it Fresh​Books​.com & try it free. This is not a paid advert; I just love Fresh­books!)

Even­tu­al­ly Saul branched off & found­ed The Idea Inte­gra­tion Co., sky­rock­et­ing clients’ busi­ness­es with his unique gift of pro­mot­ing their brands & retain­ing their clients. He has been named as one of the iME­DIA 25: Inter­net Mar­ket­ing Lead­ers & Inno­va­tors & cit­ed as one of Canada’s best com­mu­ni­ty builders/​experiential mar­keters. Chris Bro­gan once referred to Saul as “exact­ly who you want rep­re­sent­ing your company.” 

Years later, not forgotten

From time to time Saul still helps out Fresh­Books with their honest-​to-​goodness (& high­ly appre­ci­at­ed) efforts of keep­ing their cus­tomers hap­py & suc­cess­ful. A few months ago I received anoth­er email from Saul. This time it was an invi­ta­tion to not one, but two din­ners on his dime. One was for the Fresh­Books “fam­i­ly” & the oth­er was for his friends in Los Ange­les. He stat­ed adamant­ly that I should attend both because I belong to both! Is that gen­er­ous & from the heart, or what?

I could only attend the Fresh­Books group, but am I glad I did! It was at a his­toric Hol­ly­wood restau­rant, the Dres­den Room, & you could feel the pres­ence of Bog­a­rt, Ben­ny & Berle. I’ve been to a lot of clas­sic restau­rants but this was a first. What an ele­gant, mag­nif­i­cent evening, again with old & new Fresh­Books friends. I even stayed after din­ner to check out the retro-​style enter­tain­ment in the lounge. (The Blood & Sand is their sig­na­ture cocktail.) 

Thanks again, Saul. As a trib­ute to this mem­o­rable guy, I cre­at­ed Amper­Art #117, See & Be Seen, & saved it for Valen­tine’s Day. After all…

Hearts are passé
For Valen­tine’s Day
Here’s some­thing else red
For you instead