The exhaust fan in my pool cabana room had died at the end of last year. It sat broke through the winter since our pool was closed. In the spring as we re-opened it, I knew I had to do something, but wasn’t sure what.
My mind remembered seeing stickers on the side of the road on the backs of traffic signs with a simple message:
Broken bathroom fan? Call the Fan Whisperer.
Such a simple and to the point message. Something I didn’t need at the time, but when I did, I knew who to call. Based on this memory I started a google search and sure enough there is a “Fan Whisperer” in Toronto who does house calls.
As he would not need to enter my house, I felt comfortable during covid to call him to do the job.
A station wagon with a mounted LED board to the roof with a blinking message in bright lights flashed as he pulled in: Broken bathroom fan? Call the Fan Whisperer!
The car resembled my memory of the improved Ecto-1, the car of the Ghostbusters, that was upgraded with an LED sign on the roof in Ghostbusters 2.
Out popped out a man, I would learn later he was 69 years old, who looked like a handyman at that age might look like but with 10x the energy. I observed social distancing and escorted him to my pool cabana to look at the fan.
“This is trash” he said as he looked at the old fan. “I’m going to replace the mechanism with the best fan available. I had these custom made, they’re based on computer fan technology. They are rated for 80,000 hours.”
He then demonstrated the new fan cover he was going to install, that used magnets to keep it in place with no screws.
He finished his job, filled out an invoice and I paid him.
I asked him a bit about those stickers I had seen. He told me he spent months driving around the city over night, slapping stickers everywhere. They drove his business. He had come up with a way to stand apart from everyone. To plant seeds, so when the day comes you have a broken fan as I did, you know who to call.
He then began to tell me about his quest to engineer the best exhaust fans that exist. How he sourced the parts, how he made requests for changes, how he could install his new fan in any exhaust. How they were superior to anything out there.
I realized I was standing in the presence of a literal Fan Master. His passion was overwhelming. He loved what he did, he loved helping people by solving their fan exhaust problems, and he loved the technical challenge. He hoped to expand and train people. He told me his age, 69, but it was clear he was never going to retire. We spoke for 30 minutes in my drive way.
I knew if I could tap the same enthusiasm for anything I did, as this man could do for something as innocuous as exhaust fans, I could accomplish great things.
On this day I was just happy to meet the Fan Whisperer. To be in his presence for a bit. That he was able to help me.
And then he got into his car, the LED roof started flashing and he drove away to his next job.
What is out there that moves you as powerfully as exhaust fans move the Fan Whisperer and how can you communicate it as effectively as he did?
