Our Town: Store windows on Main Streets

If I had to summarize the surprising and unexpected  presidential run of Donald Trump I would say never underestimate the power of branding.  
If you want to learn how to be a successful storekeeper on Long Island you can learn from him.  
I attended a conference yesterday  at Fordham University where  professors and psychoanalysts were gathered to discuss the 2016 presidential election.  
The entire seminar was spent discussing Donald Trump and his personality. No surprise here.  
The remarks tended to be hostile and attacking. 
I was the only person in the room who actually knew Donald Trump and came away from the conference with the  idea that once again he was underestimated.   
He much like Tiger Woods in golf is a force of nature. 
For 20  years every conversation about golf began and ended with Woods.  And now for the last 18 months every conversation about politics began and ended with Trump. 
Trump and politics in general is far removed from the streets of Williston Park, Manhasset, Port Washington or Great Neck but we can all learn a lesson from his method of marketing.  
1. Do not be afraid to shine a light on yourself and your store.  
As an example there is a little shop owned by Debbie Winter right next to Hildebrandt’s  Williston Park that serves the best pastries you will find on Long Island.  Alas no one knows about them. 
They have a little sign in front that says “Irresistibly Good” but their window displays nothing that would remotely reveal how very good their pastry treats are.  
If Trump owned that store the sign would be bigger than life itself and the pastries in the window would be visible to one and all.   
Everyone likes to criticize Trump for being a self-promoter but all he is really doing is branding himself. 
2. Do not underestimate your value.  
I get my haircut at a place called Aroma Nails again on Hillside Avenue in Williston Park.  
The owners are Suhwa Kim and her husband Minho.  
Suhwa really knows how to cut hair.  But as in most things in life it took me some pain to understand just how good she is.  
She had a baby recently and was off work for two months.   
I was forced into getting my hair cut from someone else and sadly for me it didn’t look too good.  
When you get to my age you need a really good haircut to look even passable.  
So each day I looked in the mirror and I fluctuated between wanting to cry or finding out where Suhwa lived and talking her into cutting my hair immediately.  
Well I gritted my teeth and patiently waited for her to return.  
Each day I would go into her shop and ask her husband when she was returning.  Finally she was there and I sat down and said  “welcome home!”   
As she cut my hair I saw how talented she really was and thought to myself  she could charge me four to five times more than her current rate and I wouldn’t bat an eye.  
She charges me twenty dollars and if she raised her price to one hundred dollars I would still be smiling and saying “thanks.”  
No one would ever accuse Donald Trump of underestimating his value. And his attitude has made him over a billion dollars and counting.  
His slogan “Make America Great Again”  is a good reflection of how much  he values himself and his country. 
As I strolled down Hillside Avenue on Sunday I stopped to look at the always interesting window display at Peter Andrews. 
As luck would have it Patricia the owner and window display artist was exercising her magic at the time and I asked her about the local shopkeepers on Hillside and whether she was for hire to help them out. 
She told me that she thought Williston Park was going through a renaissance over the last few years and that there is now much more street traffic with new faces thanks to the new restaurants like Taverna 38, Sangria 71, and the Butchers.  
Now is the time for local shopkeepers to take advantage of this window of opportunity. 
I think Williston Park is like many of the small towns on Long Island.  
The store keepers provide great service and great product but not many people know how to market or present themselves to the public.   
Only a small percentage of the folks walking down Hillside  know anything about how good Debbie Winter’s  apple turnovers are or just how great a haircutter Suhwa Kim is. 
We may be a bit weary  of this year’s presidential  campaign but we can learn something from The Donald. 
He has unwittingly taught America  that  if you are smart enough,  brave enough and confidence enough to trumpet your wares  you just might find yourself achieving more success then you ever dreamed possible.  
Trump taught America  to dream big, value yourself, show the world who you are and to shoot for the stars.   
That is quite a bit to learn just by watching a new politician in action.