" Let me tell you about today's special!"

All of us from time to time go out to eat. And I just do not mean places where you drive up to the window, place your order and minutes later are back on the highway wolfing down a burger and fries. I am talking about places where you are seated at a table and are called upon to eat your food with actual silverware. As a treat, this is always fun. At those restaurants, a waiter or waitress will inevitably approach your table and at some point give you a run down of the highlights on the day's menu as well as a description of that day's special. In my experience, I have had servers who recite this information from memory and others who have to read it off some type of small index card.  (If it were me, I would definitely be one of the ones who reads the information.)

In those instances, the servers are attempting to persuade the patron to buy one of the big-ticket items which they have highlighted. I often wonder how many folks actually order one of those food items as a result of how well the server's pitch was. (I never have but then I recognize I may be an exception.) I also wonder during the course of an average shift, how often the server is called upon to repeat that pitch. Whatever the number is, their challenge is to make that pitch sound as fresh as whatever food the patron ultimately orders. Without question, for the server to maintain a certain level of enthusiasm in such a scenario is not easy. (I am not all that sure I could do it.)

This challenge faced each day by those servers is not unlike what any of us, including professional communicators, contend with each day of our lives. If you are a parent or in a relationship, for instance, the chances are great that you reiterate to that special someone your feelings for them. Ideally, you do it with enthusiasm and conviction. Hopefully, those on the receiving end of that "I love you" or other endearment find you convincing. This type of up-close public relations requires a great deal of repetition; yet each time you say it or, in the case of the server, the information from the menu, then it must be shared as if it for the first time. The lesson here is that one of the key ingredients in any successful public relations effort is the energy behind it