Duncan McGeary - Genius For Mayor

Well, before you get started Bend-Bilbo-Bust-Baggins... I DO like Duncan. He does one thing you and I and almost everyone else in the Bend RE-bashing blogosphere does not do: He does NOT post anonymously.

The guy's got rocks.

OK, I have whomped on the Bulletin and many others about their almost complete lack of editorial standards, the blatant misstatements of fact by local Realtors and the 100% pass they've received, and one hell of a lot of other pretty unpopular opinionating. Alas, I have done it behind a think veil of anonymity, like a quivering puddle of spineless goo that I am. But there is strength in numbers, and I am at least redeemed, in part, in that so does almost everyone else. Face it: RE interests have their tentacles in almost everything around here, and giving them a nice public thumping will have deleterious effects on just about any business person or employee.

Not Duncan. The guy makes comments that are probably not popular with Bends landed set about the state of the Bend RE market. Now he's taken a fair amount of abuse for being mealy-mouthed, "Flander-ish" and other such nonsense. OK, the difference between him & his accusers is that he takes personal accountability for his statements, and you & I do not. He has to LIVE WITH WHAT HE IS SAYING. He has to pay his rent, after saying he thinks his rent is too high! He has to run his business. People can walk in his store & ask him about what he's saying. Neither I nor anyone else I know of is subject to similar scrutiny.

OK, so you can whomp on him all day long, but your anonymous rants don't have any repercussions on your life or business, his do. He HAS TO watch what he says, it impacts his life. Your comments & mine do not. I do not agree with everything Duncan says, but I at least have the clarity of mind to know, that given the nature of his posts & the impact they have on his business:

The Guy's Got Rocks.

OK, so what's with this Duncan, Genius For Mayor stuff? Well, I should say that I personally don't know Duncan, have been in his shop rarely, and really don't even understand the nature of his product offering, that nevertheless Duncan is the kind of guy I would LOVE to have in some sort of local P/T political office.

Would I agree with him 100% of the time? Almost certainly not. I'll bet right here and now that he's Democrat. I consider myself Republican and would vote thusly, were the entire Republican party not populated by turds. I'd vote Dem, but the turds over there are larger & more numerous. Hell, my guy last time around would have been Sharpton! You have to admit... it'd been a hell of a 4 years!

Anywho, I wouldn't want Duncan (or anyone) in office who parrots my political leanings, but someone who knows what the hell is going on. I'm not sure how to best characterize someone like this, but the best I can think of is "Tinkerer", and "Do It Yourselfer".

Before I go on about that, I should say that Duncan, his business, and his views on just about anything would hold ZERO interest for me if his blog had turned into a self-serving, self-ingratiating marketing instrument for his business. You think about downtown Bend business owners, and the nature of this town and it would be extremely easy to fall into this trap. I would say there is a 95% chance that a businessperson starting a similar blog in Duncans place would go this way. Woof, dead boring. Had Duncan gone this route, I would have lost interest in about 2 seconds. Or less.

But he didn't. He went the authentic route. The high credibility route. It would have been DAMN EASY to get into glad-handing self-congratulatory crap. But he didn't. THIS is something MANY people in this town can learn from. People are tired of bullshit. Realtors: you want some credibility? Hang it out there, warts and all. Stop saying that everything is peaches & cream. You'll have more credibility, faster than you will EVER have by LYING to The Bulletin about how well you aced The Creating Perceived Shortages Community College course last year. Beware: People can spot bullshit in all it's forms 5,000,000 miles away, and you will be ridiculed till the cows come home. Then the cows will ridicule you.

OK gentle reader, I ask you to go to & read Duncans blog. He runs a "comic book" store, and you might think, "Hell, that doesn't apply to me!". Think again. I actually read Duncans blog & find much that applies to almost any business, and especially Bends local economy, specifically the RE market.

He's a tinkerer. You can tell. His store is like a little laboratory. And I can tell you that as a business person, I do the same thing. Try X, see what happens, try Y, see what happens, learn little rules of thumb, spot strange little correlating trends, walk by storefronts, watch the other guy, pump him for info mercilessly, REPEAT. I can tell you this: Duncan doesn't go home, and "turn off". It's always going, his mind is just churning through every little thing. He's in some small way tormented by it. It's kind of staked out a little fort in his head, and it goes to Astoria or where ever, and it makes him go into tinkering mode even when he's on vacation. It makes him worry about B&N. He's a tinkerer, and his business is like Flubber. I'm also a tinkerer, but unfortunately my stomach is like Flubber.

I also KNOW this, he watches every little thing in his store, and gets nervous about success, failure, and all things in between. What about todays Big Sellers? Could be a store crushing fad (sound like anything?) of tomorrow. What about cash-flush competitors, should he double up on (graphic novels|comics|etc) that they are cashing in on? I read Duncan's comments on how he stocks inventory & monitors sales, and it takes me back to my school-girl days teaching Finance. It's basic portfolio management. The ONLY FREE RIDE in investing is diversification. Hold too much of one thing, or group of things, and they will sooner or later take you out. Applies to comic book stores, stocks, industries, or just about anything.

Duncan is about the only store of his kind left in Bend. Why? Did he sneakily outfox them? Lower costs? Inside deals with The Man? Alas, I think not. He invested better. When others saw a winner, they doubled down, and doubled down again. Duncan probably doubled down once or twice, but at some point probably had to make payroll (& rent) out of his own pocket, and swore "Never Again!". One sector comprising 80-90% of sales can be a killer when the trend goes "Pogs" on you.

Another thing I can just about bet is a dead-lock, is that Duncan has probably never hired a high-priced marketing firm to shamelessly flog his business. "Behind the times", "Out of touch", you say. Get jiggy, Duncan! How about that Unifi web app start-up I read about a few days ago... they are starting up a little medical web app business, and when you read on, you see the founders have almost ZERO direct knowledge of the technology that will essentially BE that business. They hired that work out to some local tech outfit. They are purely a marketing front-end.

I would bet this is not Duncan's bag. He does his own marketing, if any is to be done (probably not, that's what his location is for). He does his own (financial) books (maybe). He's pretty damn connected with each & every little thing. It's part of the tinkering thing. It's hard, if not impossible for him to not at least try to become acquainted with every piece & part of his business. You can tell. Read his blog. Personally I think his blog is a marketing master stroke. Ahead of the curve, executed well, authentic, credible, wide ranging, insightful & interesting. I read it everyday.

And I'm sure that Duncan may object to this lovefest, and say, "You've got it all wrong! I don't know what the hells going on half the time!" Well, that is far more often the mark of intelligence than smug know-it-alls. I don't trust know-it-alls, and man is this place overrun with them. I trust someone who is curious, admits they don't know the answer, investigates to the best of their ability, assimilates their findings with past knowledge, and humbly and with some dash of uncertainty, tells me what they "think" is going on, with healthy dashes of self-skepticism. Boorish know-it-alls are almost always wrong. They are usually far more concerned with their own self-image than the truth.

OK, so Duncan's the greatest guy in history, big whoop. Well, I'm hoping that the point of my blog is to inform & educate people primarily. Some think it's about bashing the hell out of Bend RE, which frankly I could give a damn about, and that's IF it were even possible, which I doubt. And a blog by a guy running a comic book store, may not seem a good source for political insight, much less real estate insight, but look again. Duncan OUTLASTED a lot of "trend-followers" who jumped on the latest FAD. When others concentrated, he DIVERSIFIED. He gets NERVOUS when ONE SECTOR takes on TOO MUCH IMPORTANCE. He watches his COSTS, and watches THE OTHER GUY. His first concern isn't cashing in on TODAYS BIG THING, it's NOT GETTING CARRIED OUT tomorrow. He probably doesn't delegate LEARNING about his business to SOMEONE ELSE.

Any of that sound applicable to a certain Bend industry? Could our beloved City Counsilors learn a thing or two about this? There is much to learn, and the best sources are usually in the nooks & crannies you least expect. So I nominate Duncan McGeary for Mayor. Or City Counsilor. Or something. Just get someone in there that thinks, investigates, and has some common sense, and doesn't delegate out Their Job. Not someone who basically sees public service as a stepping stone for backdoor deals for their business or becoming part of the Old Boy Network.