“Word-of-mouth” is not advertising.  It’s a personal recommendation.  It starts with someone being deeply impressed by a product or service, so much so that when an opportunity arises, he or she tells another person about it.

With this in mind, may I offer you a few recommendations of my own?

1. For gentlemen who shave regularly, I urge you to try a product called Cremo, about which I wrote at some length recently. It comes in several varieties, of which “Cooling” is my favorite; I like the icy sensation that lingers for a few minutes after shaving. If you currently use a foam, gel, or “boar’s hair brush and shaving soap,” as someone recently mentioned to me, I’m pretty sure that you won’t go back to them after trying Cremo. (Unless, of course, you prefer a less-smooth shave and more frequent nicks.) It’s astonishingly good stuff.

2. For automobile owners who wax their cars and trucks occasionally after washing them, I can’t speak highly enough about a product called Ultima Paint Guard Plus. You know how traditional waxing works: apply the liquid or paste wax, let it dry to a haze, then wipe it off and buff with a clean cloth, resulting in a shiny, glass-smooth protective finish. Ultima Paint Guard Plus provides the same result, only it eliminates the need for wiping and buffing. What it has saved me in time and effort more than compensates for its premium price, and its protection lasts for months.

3.  If you like products that improve efficiency, you might enjoy this. Recently, I replaced a couple of outdoor spigots for our garden and soaker hoses. Instead of buying hose bibbs with standard valve faucets that turn counter-clockwise to open and clockwise to close, I chose to go with ball-valve spigots that go from full-off to full-on with just a quarter-turn of the handle. If you suffer from arthritis, as I do, it’s a little change that makes a definite difference.

4. Homemade ginger beer. A few years ago, at my younger daughter’s insistence, I tried South Fork’s ginger beer. It’s non-alcoholic, full of flavor, and really refreshing. I asked our waiter about their recipe. He said there are all kinds of recipes out there and it’s pretty simple to make. So, I asked Google and began to experiment. Two years later, I’ve settled on a recipe that’s easy and bulletproof. Ingredients are: ginger juice (extracted from ginger root), lemon juice, yeast, sugar, and water. After you’ve made it a few times, you might experiment with the addition of other juices and spices for fun. Here’s the full recipe, along with a few tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way. Enjoy!

So, there are four specific instances of word-of-mouth…recommendations from me to you.

Have any good recommendations of your own? I’d love to hear about them.

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Rod Schwartz backed into a lifelong career in radio advertising in 1973 in Springfield, Illinois. He became sales manager for the Pullman Radio Group in 1979 and served in that position until 2006. He continues to serve clients in the region as the stations’ senior account executive. Since 1991, Rod and his family have operated Grace Broadcast Sales, providing short-form syndicated radio features to radio and TV stations across the U.S. and Canada. An avid photographer, Rod shares some of his favorite images of the Palouse at PalousePics.com.