Be Gluttonously Authentic. A Lesson from Burgers, Fries and Milkshakes

By Lisa Moore, gira{ph}

Located on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, NV is the Heart Attack Grill. (You read that right – Heart Attack Grill) It is decorated in red and white with an ambulance sitting at the front entrance. When you walk into the restaurant, waitresses, dressed as nurses, don you with a hospital gown before seating you at a table to take your prescription (aka your order). The menu includes hamburgers such as the single bi-pass, double bi-pass, triple bi-pass and, of course, the super cheesy, mega 4 patty grease-dripping, quadruple bi-pass along with flatliner fries cooked in pure lard. Their milkshakes are made with real cream, if you weigh over 350 pounds you eat for free, and they boast the world’s highest calorie burger. Guinness Book of World Records even acknowledged this accomplishment with a certificate for a burger packing a whopping 9,982 calories. (I promise that’s not a typo. Look it up.) Heart Attack Grill World Record

So why do I love Heart Attack Grill?

Well, it’s not their food, which I must admit I haven’t eaten out of fear. I love them for flagrantly embracing who they are without any consumer manipulation. In fact, they are unabashedly and blatantly transparent. Making no apologies, diet considerations or salads – they refuse to be all things to all people.  Take them or leave them – they are shamelessly who they are at every touch point with the consumer and create an experience worth talking about.

What do they have to do with credit unions?

What if you knew a niche of people with a common bond so well you didn’t have to apologize and had a secret language and culture that speaks at every turn “we get you”?  What if you could eliminate the extra fluff and just focus on being your world’s best ?

Being unique and serving people well doesn’t have to mean reinvention, simply serving a group of people beyond their expectations.

Don’t apologize. Be authentically human.  And gluttonously serve “well done”.