AHHH!

Early morning (7:00 a.m.)...the Brunswick Forest Wellness Center pool all to myself...heaven!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation!

Our daughter, Liz, son-in-law, Conor, and their three children just visited "Carolina", as Annabel like to call Wilmington. Seamus is now 4 1/2, Annabel 2/1, and baby Libby is just 3 months old. We had a ball playing with them at the pool, at the beach, downtown, and at our place. It was hard to say goodbye until we see them all again soon!

Playing at the pool with Annabel!


Making cupcakes with Seamus and Annabel!














Visiting Kilwins before lunch!

Get Attention with the Unexpected

At an Internet marketing seminar a business video expert taught that the most important ingredients in a business video that gets results are unexpected elements to jar the viewers’ attention. The presenter demonstrated with some comparisons of short videos where the first clip was a predictable presentation and the second clip contained unexpected sound and visual effects. The second video was more lively, entertaining, and kept our attention.

Here are two examples of getting attention with the unexpected in business settings.

First, at an Internet conference, a group of attendees word t-shirts advertising their affiliate partners who were attending the same conference. Internet marketers thrive on affiliate partnerships and they’re always looking for strong alliances. The folks who wore the testimonial t-shirts grabbed the attention of everyone they passed, they had a lot of fun as a result of their creativity, and they gave a big boost to their affiliate partners – all for about $12! They met a lot of new people themselves because it was easy to strike up a conversation with them.

Second, as an independent distributor for a network marketing company, I traveled to their corporate office after I achieved a first-level promotion. To my surprise, when our bus of advancing distributors arrived at the office, we were greeted by a live band and every single employee was applauding for us on the front steps. They had balloons decorating a beautiful spread of food and drink, a professional photographer, and even Miss California! This company certainly got my attention with the unexpected fanfare and recognition of their distributors.

Take the challenge to build the unexpected into your work to get noticed and improve your results.

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Copy Ducks

If you’re like me, you probably don’t look forward to your dentist appointments. However, we all know the importance of being responsible for our dental health, so we make and keep those appointments. There is an absolutely wonderful feature about my current dentist’s office that helps me escape into a world of play, and that’s the duck pond, which patients can view directly through a wall size window right at the base of the dental chair.

As I watch the ducks interact with abandon, I realize they have a lot to teach us about the art of play. First of all, they’re uninhibited in their natural environment and are continuously sliding, jumping, chasing, gliding, diving, preening, and eating.

Imagine if, in your work day, you showed as much non-stop energy and enthusiasm in your work environment! Do you slide into your work space with boundless excitement, jump for joy when you have a win, chase your goals, glide through meetings with poise and professionalism, dive for that big account, preen before meeting with an important client, and eat well and with others who are supportive of your vision and mission? If not, maybe it’s time you took some lessons from the ducks in your nearest duck pond!

And by the way, I applaud my dentist for locating his practice on a duck pond where he and his staff obviously appreciate the duck playground on a daily basis and definitely do transfer some of that light hearted attitude to their important work and client interactions.

Unorthodox Networking

In my experience, the most fun business networking events are a bit unpredictable, create connections faster, and raise the participants’ energy so they’re more engaged in the process. Here are a few examples of memorable networking scenarios I’ve enjoyed:

1. During an early morning networking meeting, we routinely played Frisbee inside the room to make sure everyone was awake, ready for action, and smiling at the early hour;

2. At a few local speed networking events, which are pattered on speed dating events, business people rotate around six tables where they make their 60-second presentations;

3. One networking group wrote numerous networking tips on a beach ball and threw it around the group as part of their networking education segment;

4. Another networking group wrote a song about themselves and their businesses, performed it together, and posted it on YouTube for more exposure;

5. A small music group that’s looking for more bookings routinely plays for free at networking meetings to demonstrate their talent.

6. A creative networking group runs their weekly meeting like a radio broadcast and each member broadcasts commercials and news about their business.

7. Each member of the networking group received a fortune cookie and had to incorporate their fortune in their 60-second presentation.

People lose interest when networking events become stale and predictable. Abundance comes through other people and most people like to have fun, so networking events are great places to start to play more and work less to help people connect faster through shared, entertaining experiences.

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Are They Serious?

Sometimes, when you have a serious business problem, a playful solution is most effective.

When I first spotted the billboards with the “Do It Downtown” campaign for downtown Wilmington, NC, my reaction was, “Are they serious?” The business owners downtown were completely serious when they adopted this marketing slogan, but they were smart to adopt a flirty image for their desired results.

What I read into the slogan was “Downtown is a Place to Play”. The campaign was sponsored by many downtown retail stores, galleries, theaters, restaurants, and tourist attractions – a strong collective of venues for unlimited fun. St. Charles, IL is another city that has adopted the same slogan. You can read lists of Things to Do in Downtown “X”, but that sort of message appeals to the head, while “Do it Downtown” appeals to the heart, at least to my heart!

Just that small twist to convert an important marketing campaign into a playful message has had huge ramifications for Downtown Wilmington, As a result of pulling people into the movement with a spirit of play, numerous committees have formed to enhance the campaign with a Web site, marketing materials, Downtown Ambassadors, a speakers’ bureau, education programs for downtown employees, and frequent town hall style meetings.

I don’t live or work in Downtown Wilmington, but I have always liked to play there and have enjoyed the river walk, restaurants, theater, shops, and general tourist hubbub. I found myself swept into the positive energy of the Do It Downtown campaign by joining the speakers’ bureau to help spread the word about all that Downtown Wilmington has to offer. The campaign work is actually play, which just emphasizes the overall fun times I associate with Downtown Wilmington.


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Will it Be Fish or Ducks?

Here's a tip for transforming your work into play!

If you have to travel on business, find a hotel with an entertaining twist. Here are two examples.

After a long flight to Salt Lake City from Charlotte, NC, we were relieved to arrive at the boutique downtown Hotel Monaco. The first thing we noticed was an oversized, bone-shaped chalk board on the registration desk that invited guests to enter their dog’s name so the staff could keep track of canine as well as human guests. Our first reaction was “Oh, Pepper would have loved it here! And of course, that made us miss her even more.” We discovered an unexpected consolation prize in our room. There was a card suggesting that we reserve our own, free goldfish delivered to our room for our entire stay! Of course we ordered it immediately and enjoyed having a borrowed pet for our four days in Salt Lake City.

The Peabody is another hotel has a unique selling proposition along these same lines. In its Memphis, Orlando, and Little Rock locations, you’ll find The Peabody Ducks, a group of five mallards who ceremoniously march from their penthouse enclosure at 11:00 a.m. each day to the fountain lobby via elevator, and then at 5:00 p.m. they repeat their march in reverse. Each hotel has a Duck Master who leads the ducks on their daily march to the strains of King Cotton March by John Phillip Sousa. This ritual, called the Peabody Duck March, has been in place since the 1930’s, or possibly even earlier.

I haven’t stayed at the Peabody, but would definitely choose to play with their ducks.

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