Tapioca Marketing

This weekend, well actually Friday, I had a hankering for homemade Tapioca pudding. I used to make it all the time when my kids were young, but it had been YEARS. So with a winter storm predicted, I got some food in for the weekend between appointments on Friday, including the Tapioca. Now this looked like new fangled Tapioca, not the red box type. But what I actually found out was it was "pearl" tapioca, which meant it was more involved to make.

But never fear, I put the pearls to soak on Friday afternoon, so they could soak overnight as the instructions read.

Saturday, I could almost taste how good the pudding was going to be, but another challenge presented itself. I was supposed to make this in a double-boiler type pan, something I don't own. But I used a steamer insert with the upper part of the steamer lined with aluminum foil so that the steam wouldn't get in. I used a bowl inside this contraption for the actual cooking.

Well, to make a LONG story a little shorter, my pudding never gelled. Today, while I was out cross-country skiing, I figured that I could still bake it in the oven, just like a custard pie, without the crust. It worked. Finally tonight I had my first taste. Not pudding consistency, but still very good.

So why am I telling you all this?

Well, sometimes we do marketing that doesn't work. I'm sure we all have those leftovers that we're now wondering what to use or throw away.

Jeremy Haselman, a young financial planner for Northwest Mutual, had that happen to him. Early in '08, someone convinced him to plop down some money to be included in a "wedding-focused" brochure. Of course, Jeremy didn't get any business from this and when he was considering throwing the many leftovers out, he thought, "I should at least get to know all the rest of the advertisers in the flier." That is exactly what he did and now he knows a few that he can work with in the future and some that he won't waste his time. But Jeremy took a leftover and turned it into something positive.

Pudding and advertising have a lot in common!