Steve’s 2015 Advice? – Don’t be sad that it’s over

Smile Because It HappenedSo, its New Year’s Eve.

At my house, that means a special dinner with just my wife and two kids at home. We have had this tradition for years and my kids along with my wife and I look forward to it every year. It is also one of two times in a year just our family eats in our dinning room (the other being Valentine’s Day).

A new year is hours away and as I get older, this day is exciting and a bit sad at the same time. Exciting because I can’t wait to experience life in the upcoming year and sad because another year flew by so quickly.

To quote Dr. Seuss, that wonderful man of meaningful words, “…don’t cry that it’s over, smile that it happened”.

As I look forward to 2015, here are a few goals I have.

Personal Goals

– Spend more time with my parents.  My parents are getting older and fortunately they are both in good health but I know they won’t be with us forever. And take more photos when we are all together.

– Help my daughter Paige transition from high school to college. She’s a great kid who will do so well in college and I want to make sure she’s ready for a strong freshman year.

-Keep working on my work/life balance. I’m fortunate to be able to have some flexibility professionally with my travel and the team at Pro Motion does a great job of taking care of our clients, so I can make sure I’m at my kid’s sporting events or social events because I love enjoying their life’s journey with them.

– Write a book. I’ve been saying this for 5 years and I probably have 4 or 5 subjects to chose from now.  Will Pro Motion’s 20th anniversary be the year of the book?

Professional Goals

– I only have one professional goal. Happy Pro Motion team and happy clients. Everything else falls into place when both of those happen. 2015 will be the 20th year in a row to reach that goal!

Pro Motion Goals

– We need to keep defining our “who.”  You know, the “who” who we love to work with to help build their brands. When we have an opportunity with a client who matches our “who,” we do such great work together!! We also know who our “who” isn’t and we turn down those opportunities, since we only work with 10 brands at a time.

– We need to keep recruiting only the best Brand Ambassadors out in the marketplace. Our job as shepherds of our clients’ brands means we have to find Ambassadors who are as good as our client when presenting their brand. We believe 90% of the success of our field teams is making sure we find the best people and train them more than anyone else in the industry, setting them up for success on day one.

– We are fortunate and want to continue growing as an agency. The growth is manageable and it is for the right reason. We are growing because our clients love us enough to refer their friends and co-workers to us. We are growing because our reputation in the experiential marketing industry is so strong. We are growing because we continue to live by our core values and we are who we are because of who we are (Did Dr. Seuss say that or was that one Yogi Berra?).

So, I hope you had a wonderful 2014 and I wish you all a happy and healthy 2015!

Steve

photo credit: Sharon Drummond via photopin cc