We got the how and the why and a touch of the who, now on to the good stuff. The what happened and when.
This year I was much less nervous going to the meet than I was last year. I had already met a handful of the people that would be there, I felt like I had met Kelly and Kris from a series of spoof videos they used to do weekly and I had seen most of the UK hunters on a live feed from the last UK MH Meet. At least I had seen them after I made Skippy drag the camera over to where shy Julie was sitting. I also knew that when I met people in Toronto they were even cooler in person than they were online. I had no reason to think this group would be any different.
So the first person I saw was Corrie. As you all know she had been waiting patiently for a few hours while my shuttle took me to well..who knows where all we went before I finally got to the hotel! Corrie and I are enough alike that she could absolutely pass as my niece or much younger sister. She is just a touch too old, or rather I am just a touch too YOUNG to be her mother, but it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that if I had had a daughter she would be like Corrie.
Anyway I was very excited to see her face to face again. Like I talked about in the Toronto blogs one of the hardest things that happens when your friends are far away is when you just need to hug them. This year I just needed to hug Corrie. Since our meet in Toronto Corrie had been diagnosed with Thyroid cancer. We kept in touch online, of course, and I knew she was doing really well and the doctors are very pleased and positive but I just wanted to hug her and touch her and make sure she was okay. Happy to report she looks great and said for the most part she feels fine!
The next two to arrive were Skippy and Kat. Our Australian and New Zealand girls. I had just seen Skippy at the beginning of summer but it was still so exciting to see her again and to meet Kat was pure joy! I never thought we would get the opportunity to see each other face to face. New Zealand to Oregon isn't exactly an easy trip to make! This was also one of my favorite first meetings because Skippy is over 6 feet tall and Kat is under 5 feet tall. Just to see them walk in together was great! :-)
Glyn joined us and we were off to find some lunch and make plans for the rest of the day. Now as Americans we sometimes don't pay attention to things and start to take them for granted, those incredible opportunities that are presented to us on a daily basis. I think it must be the same everywhere you go. If you are in London you stop noticing all of the beautiful old buildings just brimming with history. If you are in Australia you find that the gorgeous scenery starts to just blend into the background. In America we tend to forget about such things as the delicacy known as Taco Bell. Skippy is originally from the US and every time she comes home she makes sure to get Taco Bell. There is nothing else like it anywhere else. So off we went to grab some Taco Bell.
New York is different than any place I've lived in a lot of ways, but the one that stuck out to me over and over was the lack of places to sit inside. For instance the Taco Bell we went to shared a space with a Dunkin Donuts and had three bar stools in the window for seating. That was it. Starbucks in Oregon have couches and lounges and tables and in New York, maybe two chairs and some bar-stools. That's it. So we got our food and headed back outside to find someplace to eat. Luckily we remembered a park close by and found our way back to it, unluckily it was run by a group of Mafia Squirrels. Seriously, these were the pushiest squirrels I have ever seen! Now Kat was THRILLED to see the squirrels (Skippy was too last year, until an unfortunate experience with a UK squirrel...) Australia and New Zealand seem to be lacking in them. So at first Kat was very excited. Then the squirrels wouldn't let us sit on the first bench we chose and chased us off to the other side of the walk. You think I am kidding, but these were TOUGH squirrels! Once we sat down they sent over the pigeons to spy on us!
So it could have been the jet lag or it could have been that the voices I was doing and the story about the squirrels I was telling were actually very funny...but either way we were all laughing and giggling and carrying on like the old friends that we actually were. It was a great start to a very fun weekend.
We ended up heading back over to the hotel to meet up with Shay and Kirsten as their flights had just landed. While we were there we caught up with the UK Four (Julie, Paul, Steve and Clare) and Adrian arrived as well! So in a hotel room that had been described as spacious on the website but we soon discovered was really space"ish" I got that same surreal experience of hearing everyone talking and joking and laughing all at once. The chat thread come to life experience. It was great.
After moving over to the second of our rooms in that hotel I got a chance to grab a quick shower before heading downstairs to meet everyone for dinner. While getting ready I had a moment with Kirsten that reminded me of Toronto very strongly. As we were in our own space"ish" room I was reaching for my coat and she was reaching for her bag and she said "Excuse me, Denise" the she stopped and broke out into a huge grin. "Excuse me, Denise. Because you are RIGHT HERE in the room with me! So I need to say excuse me!" Her real and virtual worlds just collided in her head and it was great to witness!
At dinner we were joined by James, Kris and Kelly. We didn't think Kelly was going to be able to make it Friday night so we were all VERY excited to see her. Hugs and squeals of joy and delight were abundant and in Shay's case so were the tears. She warned us that she was going to turn into a "big ole girl" so we had been expecting it. When Kris and Kelly arrived the first words Kris said to me were, "You are so pretty!" as my friend Heaven says..."I keep you." Kris then picked up Cat from the airport and she joined the group as well. It was all great fun, listening to people talk, hearing the accents, the laughter the stories about family and travel and MH. But as my friends from the UK say after my long travel day I was shattered and we were meeting at 8:30 to head out into the city so I was done. James pointed out that though it was 11:30 in New York it was only 8:30 in Oregon but I was done. So off to bed for me with only a quick wake up when Justin arrived for a hug and kiss and off they went to Karaoke.
I am sorry I missed the singing but not sorry I missed the 3:30 (Corrie and Cat) and 4:30 (Justin and Kirsten) bedtimes. I am not now nor have I ever been a night person. And as I only get around 3 to 4 hours of sleep in an average night I have to grab them when they come! When the group came back for the night, morning? we chatted some and then settled back in for some more sleep. Or in my case for some rest and the snore symphony! The next morning when I met Kat in the lobby before we headed out to the Empire State Building she let me know I had probably gotten off easy with the trio in my room as her room was filled with either the sounds of a jack hammer taking out the back wall or Steve snoring. Next time we decided to divide the rooms by snoring/nonsnoring. :-)
Glyn joined us, Cat decided against the early morning trip after the late night festivities and then Kat, Glyn and I were off to see New York City from the top of the Empire State Building. It was a beautiful view, couldn't have been a clearer day I don't think. Then Glyn and Kat were off to the museums to see the King Tut exhibit and then the Natural History Museum as well. I went back to the hotel to wake that group and head out to do some site seeing. Corrie, Justin and I headed for Times Square with Kirsten planning on meeting us there later.
Now while we were waiting to catch up to Skippy, Michele, Franco and Jacob in Times Square (which took much longer than we thought it would thanks to random text message reception)we got to see a Drag Queen Wedding, found Waldo and had a gourmet lunch from Walgreens. All in all not a bad way to spend some time. First Kirsten then Juice joined us in the square and we decided to give up on finding the other group and headed over to Toys R Us for souvenir shopping for those with little ones back home. Right after stepping inside Justin says..."Wait? Is that Skippy?" Ta Da! We found them! What are the odds of finding four people in Times Square? But we did! And then Skippy and Corrie compared texts that had been sent versus texts that had be received and we all wandered the toy store together. A quick visit with a Naked Cowboy a late lunch and then back to the hotel to get ready for the main event that night!
What can I say about the party? It was fabulous fun. Everyone shared stories about how they spent their day. Had more than a few drinks and even more laughs! A lot of pictures were snapped (and not just by me!) and a lot of hunting was done as well. It's the only group where it's not only acceptable but expected that you have your phone or laptop out and active at all times! And since the wifi connection was better in the hallway it was perfectly all right to excuse yourself from a conversation to wander out to change cheese or a trap. Remember what I said about last year and the devs? How we met them, shook a hand and then went back to visiting with each other. Well this year there was that but even better Franco and Jacob were able to mingle in and have fun as well. Michele was one of us before she was one of them so she was always comfortable with the rowdies. :-) But it was great fun to see them having fun as well. And to hear from all of us how much we appreciate the game, not only for the fun we have in playing it, but really for the fun we have in playing it with each other.
Oh and the live feed was up as well! Can't forget that! The devs set up the U-Stream feed they use for their broadcasts and we went LIVE FROM NEW YORK...It's Saturday Night!(yeah, I will never get tired of making that joke!) The excitement as you would see a name on chat that you knew was contagious! "Look!! It's Anthony!! Everybody it's Anthony!" And then there was Mel and Kaz and Doug and Krys and Travis and Sam and Rex and LouLou who Corrie and I tried to decide for awhile if it was our LuLu or not...turns out not, but I am sure who ever she was she was still excited to hear her name and comments called out over and over. And so many others. Chat moves so fast I have a new respect for the Devs and how they can keep up at all during their broadcasts!
It was a late evening for me (I cannot remember the last time I was awake and out to see the time change happen!) and an even later night for most of the rest of the group but it was still too short. My only regret for the weekend was how fast it flew by. I wish I had had more time time during the day to sit and chat with people and a little more time for more site seeing. Someday I will get back to the City and really take the time to see it, and someday I hope to be in a room with all of those wonderful people and really visit some more. Because it is really a thrill after talking with someone for two years to have them put a hand on your leg and say, "I can't believe I am sitting next to Denise Mastenbrook" and to be able to put an arm around them and say, "And I am sitting next to Julie Harrison!" It's just a great feeling and I am smiling just thinking about the whole trip.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
These little town blues....
So now that you all know how I got to and from New York are you ready for the story of why I went? As you all know from the stories about Toronto last year (I linked them in yesterday's blog if you are interested) I play an online game called MouseHunt and through the game I have met and made friends with people from all over the world. This trip to New York was to meet a group of them face to face.
MH New York was the group that formed to plan and arrange this gathering. James Cha and Kristijan and Kelly Spar made the plans, found a room for the gathering and set about making sure people knew about the party and were going to come to New York. Now the Toronto meet was all about the Nibbler party (sort of) but it was mainly an excuse for The Zoo to get together and wreck havoc on the city. The Zoo is a group of hunters (the people that play the game) that never met a boundary that they didn't want to push. Never read something that couldn't be turned into innuendo and pretty much just liked to have fun. MH New York is mostly made up of Page One Hunters (you should hear trumpets when I say that) or the Scoreboard Chasers or if you are being a little more cheeky when you say it...Point Whores.
Now don't get me wrong, there is some Zoo cross over action happening (like in calling themselves Point Whores) and this group is super fun as well, but they take the game itself a little more seriously. They figure out things like best hunting stats and return on cheese investment and maximum points and they are the top group of hunters in a game of hundreds of thousands. These guys are the gamers of the group. They are the ones who know where, when and with what you should be hunting. They don't miss a horn. They are active 24/7 with the spare phone batteries and vibrating watch alarms to prove it. And I have no idea how I ever got involved with them! :-)
I am the classic ADD game player. I cannot sit still in real life and I cannot do it in the game either. There are different locations you can travel to, you see, and I can spend just a few days in one location before I am bored and off to play someplace else. To be a truly good scoreboard chaser you must be willing to stay in the highest point location of the game and keep yourself active and online for days, weeks, months at a time. I tried for a two month period a year and a half ago. Quickly got bored and hadn't checked my place on the boards again until this weekend.
Part of this weekend was figuring out how I became friends with all of these hunters. Sometimes it was easy. Julie and I have been friends since almost the start of the game. We both recognized each other as "Moms", both quick with a joke, like to have fun, but at the same time the first instinct is to help someone out who needs it, to make sure if someone is feeling down you have a word of encouragement for them. And of course we came up with Blue Steel Cheese, it was a joke recipe we made for a cheese in the game and it was very funny. Trust me. Comedy Gold.
Shay I met in Zangetzu's Tavern. A long standing thread on the old boards where I probably met fully half of my friend list. She's a writer (like me except she is actually much more dedicated to the craft!) and has had as varied a life history as I have so we became friends that way. Glyn I knew from when the Acolyte mouse was the toughest mouse in the game to catch. Glyn had not only caught more than one for himself he had been the one to sound the horn to catch a few others for other people as well. I asked if he would do the same for me, he said sure and I will be damned if he didn't do just that! So hunting by the Marshall Plan has been my motto ever since!
Corrie, Skippy, Michele, JCS and Justin were in Toronto so not only did I know them from the boards but I knew them from the real world. Then it starts to break down a little. You look at someone and think, how did we meet? And everyone there is on my friend list through Facebook. In playing a game like this you add people to help you stay active. But I don't. I only add someone if I have actually talked to them on a thread, or know them through someone else in the game. I don't do random adds. Another reason I am a lousy scoreboard chaser! So let's see...Kelly I met through Julie, the same with Kat and Clare. Cat I am pretty sure I met through Shay. Kirsten I had to have met through status updates from mutual friends because she doesn't go on the boards. Paul and Kris got added through the spouse of someone I am friends with clause in my no random adds rule. And trust me they are random! ;-) James, Adrian and Steve came with the Spars and the number of PMs I was added to where we chatted. Eileen is a MHCC member and we were both chasing Halloween mice and both coming to New York so she was my most recent add.
And then once you figure out how you became friends with people you wonder how everyone else is tied together. Like I said, the main group was the scoreboard chasers. Kris is #2 in the entire game and quickly closing on #1. I believe we had 7 of the Top Ten there live and 8 once Anthony joined via U-Stream. It's hard to tell because the boards haven't been updated in a few weeks but I think that's the right count. But from there on out it's like a web. I know you from...we know them...we met on...we talked about...And then it gets kind of funny. MH New York was made up of East Coast of the US hunters, like you would expect. Me coming in from Oregon and Shay from Colorado so we have West and Central US covered as well and then...Canada (from Victoria to Toronto), the UK, New Zealand and Australia. How is that for variety? They do say New York is the Melting Pot of the Melting Pot right? :-)
So now you know how I got there and you know why I came and who was there with me. Tomorrow I will actually talk about the weekend itself. You know me, I never met a blog I couldn't turn into a series! (and yes I will finish the work series soon!!)
MH New York was the group that formed to plan and arrange this gathering. James Cha and Kristijan and Kelly Spar made the plans, found a room for the gathering and set about making sure people knew about the party and were going to come to New York. Now the Toronto meet was all about the Nibbler party (sort of) but it was mainly an excuse for The Zoo to get together and wreck havoc on the city. The Zoo is a group of hunters (the people that play the game) that never met a boundary that they didn't want to push. Never read something that couldn't be turned into innuendo and pretty much just liked to have fun. MH New York is mostly made up of Page One Hunters (you should hear trumpets when I say that) or the Scoreboard Chasers or if you are being a little more cheeky when you say it...Point Whores.
Now don't get me wrong, there is some Zoo cross over action happening (like in calling themselves Point Whores) and this group is super fun as well, but they take the game itself a little more seriously. They figure out things like best hunting stats and return on cheese investment and maximum points and they are the top group of hunters in a game of hundreds of thousands. These guys are the gamers of the group. They are the ones who know where, when and with what you should be hunting. They don't miss a horn. They are active 24/7 with the spare phone batteries and vibrating watch alarms to prove it. And I have no idea how I ever got involved with them! :-)
I am the classic ADD game player. I cannot sit still in real life and I cannot do it in the game either. There are different locations you can travel to, you see, and I can spend just a few days in one location before I am bored and off to play someplace else. To be a truly good scoreboard chaser you must be willing to stay in the highest point location of the game and keep yourself active and online for days, weeks, months at a time. I tried for a two month period a year and a half ago. Quickly got bored and hadn't checked my place on the boards again until this weekend.
Part of this weekend was figuring out how I became friends with all of these hunters. Sometimes it was easy. Julie and I have been friends since almost the start of the game. We both recognized each other as "Moms", both quick with a joke, like to have fun, but at the same time the first instinct is to help someone out who needs it, to make sure if someone is feeling down you have a word of encouragement for them. And of course we came up with Blue Steel Cheese, it was a joke recipe we made for a cheese in the game and it was very funny. Trust me. Comedy Gold.
Shay I met in Zangetzu's Tavern. A long standing thread on the old boards where I probably met fully half of my friend list. She's a writer (like me except she is actually much more dedicated to the craft!) and has had as varied a life history as I have so we became friends that way. Glyn I knew from when the Acolyte mouse was the toughest mouse in the game to catch. Glyn had not only caught more than one for himself he had been the one to sound the horn to catch a few others for other people as well. I asked if he would do the same for me, he said sure and I will be damned if he didn't do just that! So hunting by the Marshall Plan has been my motto ever since!
Corrie, Skippy, Michele, JCS and Justin were in Toronto so not only did I know them from the boards but I knew them from the real world. Then it starts to break down a little. You look at someone and think, how did we meet? And everyone there is on my friend list through Facebook. In playing a game like this you add people to help you stay active. But I don't. I only add someone if I have actually talked to them on a thread, or know them through someone else in the game. I don't do random adds. Another reason I am a lousy scoreboard chaser! So let's see...Kelly I met through Julie, the same with Kat and Clare. Cat I am pretty sure I met through Shay. Kirsten I had to have met through status updates from mutual friends because she doesn't go on the boards. Paul and Kris got added through the spouse of someone I am friends with clause in my no random adds rule. And trust me they are random! ;-) James, Adrian and Steve came with the Spars and the number of PMs I was added to where we chatted. Eileen is a MHCC member and we were both chasing Halloween mice and both coming to New York so she was my most recent add.
And then once you figure out how you became friends with people you wonder how everyone else is tied together. Like I said, the main group was the scoreboard chasers. Kris is #2 in the entire game and quickly closing on #1. I believe we had 7 of the Top Ten there live and 8 once Anthony joined via U-Stream. It's hard to tell because the boards haven't been updated in a few weeks but I think that's the right count. But from there on out it's like a web. I know you from...we know them...we met on...we talked about...And then it gets kind of funny. MH New York was made up of East Coast of the US hunters, like you would expect. Me coming in from Oregon and Shay from Colorado so we have West and Central US covered as well and then...Canada (from Victoria to Toronto), the UK, New Zealand and Australia. How is that for variety? They do say New York is the Melting Pot of the Melting Pot right? :-)
So now you know how I got there and you know why I came and who was there with me. Tomorrow I will actually talk about the weekend itself. You know me, I never met a blog I couldn't turn into a series! (and yes I will finish the work series soon!!)
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
It was an adventure!
If it's November I must be traveling to meet with online friends! This year it was New York City instead of Toronto . I will write about the people and meeting them in another blog. Today it's about the trip. And what a trip it was!
When the meet was first being planned I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but I knew I wanted to. After a little bit of online peer pressure (Kat was coming all the way from New Zealand, there was a group coming from the UK, when would I get this chance again to meet them) I found a decent deal on the airfare and worked the numbers and knew I was in! Then some things changed, I reworked the numbers and sadly had to say I couldn't make it after all. I was disappointed but knew there would be pictures and stories and I would enjoy those as well. Just like the UK Meets.
Then things shifted again, Skippy (you remember her from the Toronto meet blogs) was going to come as well. Now I had just seen her a few months before when she had been in Washington visiting her father. I wasn't expecting her to make it back to the States from Australia again so soon. Just having her there was yet another reason to want to go, but she also had a plan that was going to make it possible for me to actually get there! Her brother is a pilot and was willing to add me to his buddy list for flying. Which cut the airfare down by enough that it was just crazy now to go instead of full on insane. So after talking to Brent (which consisted of me listing all of the responsible reasons why I shouldn't go and him saying, You want to go, go and have a great time.) I said yes!
Flying on a buddy pass is one of those things that is excellent and horrible at the same time. The cost of the flight was excellent. The uncertainty was horrible. At one point the week before the trip I thought I wouldn't make it on the plane, there were 8 empty seats and 8 people on standby. If anyone else was added I could get bumped. The priority list was JetBlue employees, other partner airline employees, buddy pass by order of check in. So if any employees wanted to fly I was out. The night before the flight Carl (Skippy's brother) checked the load on the plane one last time, 8 empty seats, 4 people on standby and I was 3 or 4 in line depending on when I checked in! Woo hoo! I was going! I booked my ticket for the Empire State Building, printed maps and check in information and let everyone know I was in FOR SURE!
Then I got to the airport...Brent and I had flown this same red eye to New York the week before and I knew how full it was then, and I knew that 8 empty seats was going to look very full as well. So I waited for my boarding pass...and waited...and waited. They don't call for standby fliers until they are already boarding the plane. They want to make absolutely sure they don't sell those seats first. As everyone is boarding and they start calling names I am counting on my fingers...that's one seat, that's two seats...oh no! he is traveling with his sons that's three right there! So finally the ticket agent looks over to where I am sitting and says, "Are you Denise?" I am sure at this point he's going to let me know I am not making it on, but he tells me, "You are on, it's a middle seat, is that okay?" Are you kidding me? Of course it's okay! I am on!!! The final count for that flight was 8 empty seats, 9 people on stand by. I was the first non-employee to check in and I got seat number 7. It was that close. Whew! Thank you Carl for stressing how important it was to check in as soon as it was open!
Through some boarding miracle the row I was sitting in was still empty and there was space for my bag in the bin right above my seat! Amazing! All I had to do was move the bag that was sitting in the bin taking up two spaces worth of room over to the side, and this is where I entered The Twilight Zone....
So as I am reaching up to slide over the bag I hear from behind me a panicked voice, "Don't touch that bag! Seriously don't move it!" I turn around and look at the guy behind me, "Is this your bag?" "No it's hers and she will freak out!" He points to the woman a row ahead of him who is now aware I am touching her bag. "Don't move that! I like to have room on each side of my bag!" I just looked at her at this point. Seriously? You like to have room? So I give her "The look" turn back around and slide her bag over and put mine next to it. "I just want my bag up here." She looks at me like I am a crazy person. I give her the head tilt and ask very calmly, "Anything else you want to say to me? No? We're good then?" and sit down. She likes to have room around her bag? And I am not sure what is crazier, the fact that she likes that, or the fact that everyone around us apparently gave in to her and let her have room!
So then my row mates come on. Score! They are two thin women! It's not going to be a miserable cramped middle seat for me! They have both been at the bar until the last possible minute so they can fall asleep easily on the plane. I sort of laugh to myself that it won't be the last time that weekend I fall asleep with the smell of alcohol in the air I am sure! Well as they are settling in we hear a commotion from the seats behind us. "DON'T TOUCH THAT! Don't open that or you'll ruin it for everybody!" Okay, now this is not what you want to hear in our post 9/11 world. So everyone gets a little tense for a second. The flight attendant runs up the aisle, seems that a woman was trying to get her bag out of the over head compartment and this was just not a good idea. See what had happened is someone broke the door shoving their bag in, the flight attendant and the guy freaking out and gotten the door closed and latched but if she had opened it there was no guarantee they could again.
The flight attendant let her know that if they had to report it as broken we couldn't take off until it was fixed and that would probably take 4 hours, and NO BODY wanted that. She said, "I just want my bag" he said, "You just need to take a seat" He won.
One of my seatmates is off trying to find room for her bag and I look down at the bag she is going to put under the seat in front of us and it looks back at me! She was flying with her cat and he was just gorgeous. Big flat faced orange kitty. She let me know he was drugged up so he was a little out of it, she was a little drunk and a little out of it as well so I thought it was a fair deal.
We are all settled in, the last announcements come through,"We will be coming through the cabin to offer beverages, our water system is broken so we cannot offer hot beverages during this flight" Okay...broken overhead bin, broken water system, what else? I decided to go right to sleep so if we died in a fiery crash I would sleep through it!
So remember my joy at having thin people next to me? It was short lived as I discovered they were thin drunk people who weren't good at boundaries. Oh well. Once everyone settled down and the cat stopped crying I got to sleep. Only to be awakened by something I never thought I would hear on a plane..."Is that your cat?" The flight attendant was leaning in close to the woman next to me, waking her up, "Is that your cat?" he asked again pointing down the aisle. Seems the cat had figured out how to open the carrier and was wandering the plane! :-) Can you even imagine sitting in a plane and looking down to see a cat wandering up the aisle? Well, she tottered off after the kitty, drugged cat, drunk owner, quite a site to see! But she caught him, got him back into his carrier and we were off to sleep again.
Now this time around I lowered the tray table, put my small bag and pillow on it and doubled over to sleep. The guy in front of me had already reclined his seat back, though not enough I guess. He inched it back a few times which made the angle too small for my arm to be above my head so I readjusted and drifted back to sleep, but this was still not enough space for him I guess. So he did the logical thing in his mind, pushed the recline button and SLAMMED back into his seat to try and capture a few more inches. This, of course, made the back of his seat smack into my head. BAM! I snap my head up open my eyes and find his wife glaring at me from the seat next to him. Well, of course, this was my fault, how dare I ram the back of my head into his seat like that? Then he proceeded to flop around in his seat for another 20 minutes before deciding he liked it better more upright after all. *sigh*
So finally land at JFK. Five thirty in the morning New York time. Two thirty Portland time. Groggy and bleary eyed I am off to find a quiet corner to nap for a while. The shuttle is going to pick me up at 9 so I can grab a few winks before heading off into the city. Airports aren't the best for sleeping, but when you are exhausted a few cat naps between announcements will do. After grabbing a little more sleep I get some food then go down to where the shuttle will pick me up. By 9:30 there is no shuttle. I call and am told that my driver looked for me but didn't find me. Sure...the area I am waiting in is pretty small and I have been there since 8:45. I saw lots of shuttle drivers come in, call names, pick up people and leave again. But not one called Denise, Mastenbrook, Dennis, Masterson, or my personal favorite Ma..Ma..Mast...Ummm.. Nothing close.
So they are going to send another shuttle. Ten o'clock and I am FINALLY on the shuttle! I am going to meet Corrie at the hotel. Corrie who left Philly after I landed and is now closer to the hotel than I am. My shuttle driver decides that having one person just won't do so he circles back around the airport to pick up more people. We don't leave JFK until 10:40 and then we started the long and winding trek into the city. I visited with a nice gentleman who was traveling in from Miami but was originally from Venezuela. We started joking that it was going to take longer to get him from JFK to Grand Central Station than it took to get from Miami to JFK! Finally after much confusion, including my driver insisting that when I was saying 6th and 26th I really meant 7th and 27th, up to and including actually trying to drop me off there, I finally got to the hotel. At noon. Three hours after I was supposed to leave the airport.
Poor Corrie sitting waiting in the hotel lobby for me all that time! I had been sending her updates during the travel though...not sure that "I AM NEVER GETTING THERE!" was very comforting or not...but at least it let her know that I was alive and still somewhere in New York.
So after a fabulous weekend with friends both old and new (blog to come later)it's time to start the journey home. I was flying standby on a late flight out of New York. Carl had texted me the night before to let me know there were 9 open seats and 8 on standby so I SHOULD be okay. Now after my 8 and 4 adventure getting in, this made me really nervous. I knew there was an earlier flight out of JFK through Long Beach that had been emptier when we first looked at flights so I figured I would head to the airport and give that a shot. One extremely expensive cab ride later (it was worth it to avoid the shuttle from hell experience!) I arrive at JFK to find that I can't change my ticket, only Carl can, and he is in the air. So I have 3 hours before I can check in for my next flight, 7 hours before it takes off and a day at JFK in my plans. It wasn't horrible. I had books, wifi, a plug for my phone and a diet coke. After finally getting my standby boarding pass I got to go through security and waste time looking through shops, eating some lunch/dinner and texting Brent.
And then watching the waiting area start to fill with people for the flight. A couple people tried to get an update on the standby status and were told that the flight was very full. But no confirmations as to how many were going to get on. So the nerves are starting again...and shoot! There is the dad with his two boys so that's three seats ahead of me on the list, and oh hell, that guy is a pilot he is on for sure! The flight was late getting in so it was past time to board and I still didn't know if I was going to be able to leave New York. My back up plan had been to call Skippy who was staying in the city until Wednesday and crash with her if I didn't get on the flight. Well Skippy's phone was on a tour of the city without her so that was not going to work. I am exhausted, worried and stressed, Brent tells me, no worries, if you don't get on just book a nice hotel room and sleep. But I just want to go home at this point. You all know the feeling right? The trip was fabulous but now it's time be home. I was the 7th person called for a seat. I know there were at least 5 people waiting when I got mine so that means at least 3 didn't make it on. Again...whew!
The flight back was mostly uneventful. The typical flight annoyances. Like "Hey, Mister, if you have a bladder the size of a peanut maybe don't book the window seat" and "You know if your 4 year old is that big of a brat already you have lost the parenting game and her teenage years are going to kill you." But I was homeward bound and that was really all that mattered!
A friend asked if it was worth it, and even if the people I was going to see hadn't all been fabulous (which they were) even if I hadn't gotten a chance to see the Empire State Building and Times Square (which I did) even if I hadn't gotten a chance to laugh so much three days later my throat is still a little shot (which it is) I would still have to say yes it was. If for nothing else than..."Is that your cat?"
When the meet was first being planned I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but I knew I wanted to. After a little bit of online peer pressure (Kat was coming all the way from New Zealand, there was a group coming from the UK, when would I get this chance again to meet them) I found a decent deal on the airfare and worked the numbers and knew I was in! Then some things changed, I reworked the numbers and sadly had to say I couldn't make it after all. I was disappointed but knew there would be pictures and stories and I would enjoy those as well. Just like the UK Meets.
Then things shifted again, Skippy (you remember her from the Toronto meet blogs) was going to come as well. Now I had just seen her a few months before when she had been in Washington visiting her father. I wasn't expecting her to make it back to the States from Australia again so soon. Just having her there was yet another reason to want to go, but she also had a plan that was going to make it possible for me to actually get there! Her brother is a pilot and was willing to add me to his buddy list for flying. Which cut the airfare down by enough that it was just crazy now to go instead of full on insane. So after talking to Brent (which consisted of me listing all of the responsible reasons why I shouldn't go and him saying, You want to go, go and have a great time.) I said yes!
Flying on a buddy pass is one of those things that is excellent and horrible at the same time. The cost of the flight was excellent. The uncertainty was horrible. At one point the week before the trip I thought I wouldn't make it on the plane, there were 8 empty seats and 8 people on standby. If anyone else was added I could get bumped. The priority list was JetBlue employees, other partner airline employees, buddy pass by order of check in. So if any employees wanted to fly I was out. The night before the flight Carl (Skippy's brother) checked the load on the plane one last time, 8 empty seats, 4 people on standby and I was 3 or 4 in line depending on when I checked in! Woo hoo! I was going! I booked my ticket for the Empire State Building, printed maps and check in information and let everyone know I was in FOR SURE!
Then I got to the airport...Brent and I had flown this same red eye to New York the week before and I knew how full it was then, and I knew that 8 empty seats was going to look very full as well. So I waited for my boarding pass...and waited...and waited. They don't call for standby fliers until they are already boarding the plane. They want to make absolutely sure they don't sell those seats first. As everyone is boarding and they start calling names I am counting on my fingers...that's one seat, that's two seats...oh no! he is traveling with his sons that's three right there! So finally the ticket agent looks over to where I am sitting and says, "Are you Denise?" I am sure at this point he's going to let me know I am not making it on, but he tells me, "You are on, it's a middle seat, is that okay?" Are you kidding me? Of course it's okay! I am on!!! The final count for that flight was 8 empty seats, 9 people on stand by. I was the first non-employee to check in and I got seat number 7. It was that close. Whew! Thank you Carl for stressing how important it was to check in as soon as it was open!
Through some boarding miracle the row I was sitting in was still empty and there was space for my bag in the bin right above my seat! Amazing! All I had to do was move the bag that was sitting in the bin taking up two spaces worth of room over to the side, and this is where I entered The Twilight Zone....
So as I am reaching up to slide over the bag I hear from behind me a panicked voice, "Don't touch that bag! Seriously don't move it!" I turn around and look at the guy behind me, "Is this your bag?" "No it's hers and she will freak out!" He points to the woman a row ahead of him who is now aware I am touching her bag. "Don't move that! I like to have room on each side of my bag!" I just looked at her at this point. Seriously? You like to have room? So I give her "The look" turn back around and slide her bag over and put mine next to it. "I just want my bag up here." She looks at me like I am a crazy person. I give her the head tilt and ask very calmly, "Anything else you want to say to me? No? We're good then?" and sit down. She likes to have room around her bag? And I am not sure what is crazier, the fact that she likes that, or the fact that everyone around us apparently gave in to her and let her have room!
So then my row mates come on. Score! They are two thin women! It's not going to be a miserable cramped middle seat for me! They have both been at the bar until the last possible minute so they can fall asleep easily on the plane. I sort of laugh to myself that it won't be the last time that weekend I fall asleep with the smell of alcohol in the air I am sure! Well as they are settling in we hear a commotion from the seats behind us. "DON'T TOUCH THAT! Don't open that or you'll ruin it for everybody!" Okay, now this is not what you want to hear in our post 9/11 world. So everyone gets a little tense for a second. The flight attendant runs up the aisle, seems that a woman was trying to get her bag out of the over head compartment and this was just not a good idea. See what had happened is someone broke the door shoving their bag in, the flight attendant and the guy freaking out and gotten the door closed and latched but if she had opened it there was no guarantee they could again.
The flight attendant let her know that if they had to report it as broken we couldn't take off until it was fixed and that would probably take 4 hours, and NO BODY wanted that. She said, "I just want my bag" he said, "You just need to take a seat" He won.
One of my seatmates is off trying to find room for her bag and I look down at the bag she is going to put under the seat in front of us and it looks back at me! She was flying with her cat and he was just gorgeous. Big flat faced orange kitty. She let me know he was drugged up so he was a little out of it, she was a little drunk and a little out of it as well so I thought it was a fair deal.
We are all settled in, the last announcements come through,"We will be coming through the cabin to offer beverages, our water system is broken so we cannot offer hot beverages during this flight" Okay...broken overhead bin, broken water system, what else? I decided to go right to sleep so if we died in a fiery crash I would sleep through it!
So remember my joy at having thin people next to me? It was short lived as I discovered they were thin drunk people who weren't good at boundaries. Oh well. Once everyone settled down and the cat stopped crying I got to sleep. Only to be awakened by something I never thought I would hear on a plane..."Is that your cat?" The flight attendant was leaning in close to the woman next to me, waking her up, "Is that your cat?" he asked again pointing down the aisle. Seems the cat had figured out how to open the carrier and was wandering the plane! :-) Can you even imagine sitting in a plane and looking down to see a cat wandering up the aisle? Well, she tottered off after the kitty, drugged cat, drunk owner, quite a site to see! But she caught him, got him back into his carrier and we were off to sleep again.
Now this time around I lowered the tray table, put my small bag and pillow on it and doubled over to sleep. The guy in front of me had already reclined his seat back, though not enough I guess. He inched it back a few times which made the angle too small for my arm to be above my head so I readjusted and drifted back to sleep, but this was still not enough space for him I guess. So he did the logical thing in his mind, pushed the recline button and SLAMMED back into his seat to try and capture a few more inches. This, of course, made the back of his seat smack into my head. BAM! I snap my head up open my eyes and find his wife glaring at me from the seat next to him. Well, of course, this was my fault, how dare I ram the back of my head into his seat like that? Then he proceeded to flop around in his seat for another 20 minutes before deciding he liked it better more upright after all. *sigh*
So finally land at JFK. Five thirty in the morning New York time. Two thirty Portland time. Groggy and bleary eyed I am off to find a quiet corner to nap for a while. The shuttle is going to pick me up at 9 so I can grab a few winks before heading off into the city. Airports aren't the best for sleeping, but when you are exhausted a few cat naps between announcements will do. After grabbing a little more sleep I get some food then go down to where the shuttle will pick me up. By 9:30 there is no shuttle. I call and am told that my driver looked for me but didn't find me. Sure...the area I am waiting in is pretty small and I have been there since 8:45. I saw lots of shuttle drivers come in, call names, pick up people and leave again. But not one called Denise, Mastenbrook, Dennis, Masterson, or my personal favorite Ma..Ma..Mast...Ummm.. Nothing close.
So they are going to send another shuttle. Ten o'clock and I am FINALLY on the shuttle! I am going to meet Corrie at the hotel. Corrie who left Philly after I landed and is now closer to the hotel than I am. My shuttle driver decides that having one person just won't do so he circles back around the airport to pick up more people. We don't leave JFK until 10:40 and then we started the long and winding trek into the city. I visited with a nice gentleman who was traveling in from Miami but was originally from Venezuela. We started joking that it was going to take longer to get him from JFK to Grand Central Station than it took to get from Miami to JFK! Finally after much confusion, including my driver insisting that when I was saying 6th and 26th I really meant 7th and 27th, up to and including actually trying to drop me off there, I finally got to the hotel. At noon. Three hours after I was supposed to leave the airport.
Poor Corrie sitting waiting in the hotel lobby for me all that time! I had been sending her updates during the travel though...not sure that "I AM NEVER GETTING THERE!" was very comforting or not...but at least it let her know that I was alive and still somewhere in New York.
So after a fabulous weekend with friends both old and new (blog to come later)it's time to start the journey home. I was flying standby on a late flight out of New York. Carl had texted me the night before to let me know there were 9 open seats and 8 on standby so I SHOULD be okay. Now after my 8 and 4 adventure getting in, this made me really nervous. I knew there was an earlier flight out of JFK through Long Beach that had been emptier when we first looked at flights so I figured I would head to the airport and give that a shot. One extremely expensive cab ride later (it was worth it to avoid the shuttle from hell experience!) I arrive at JFK to find that I can't change my ticket, only Carl can, and he is in the air. So I have 3 hours before I can check in for my next flight, 7 hours before it takes off and a day at JFK in my plans. It wasn't horrible. I had books, wifi, a plug for my phone and a diet coke. After finally getting my standby boarding pass I got to go through security and waste time looking through shops, eating some lunch/dinner and texting Brent.
And then watching the waiting area start to fill with people for the flight. A couple people tried to get an update on the standby status and were told that the flight was very full. But no confirmations as to how many were going to get on. So the nerves are starting again...and shoot! There is the dad with his two boys so that's three seats ahead of me on the list, and oh hell, that guy is a pilot he is on for sure! The flight was late getting in so it was past time to board and I still didn't know if I was going to be able to leave New York. My back up plan had been to call Skippy who was staying in the city until Wednesday and crash with her if I didn't get on the flight. Well Skippy's phone was on a tour of the city without her so that was not going to work. I am exhausted, worried and stressed, Brent tells me, no worries, if you don't get on just book a nice hotel room and sleep. But I just want to go home at this point. You all know the feeling right? The trip was fabulous but now it's time be home. I was the 7th person called for a seat. I know there were at least 5 people waiting when I got mine so that means at least 3 didn't make it on. Again...whew!
The flight back was mostly uneventful. The typical flight annoyances. Like "Hey, Mister, if you have a bladder the size of a peanut maybe don't book the window seat" and "You know if your 4 year old is that big of a brat already you have lost the parenting game and her teenage years are going to kill you." But I was homeward bound and that was really all that mattered!
A friend asked if it was worth it, and even if the people I was going to see hadn't all been fabulous (which they were) even if I hadn't gotten a chance to see the Empire State Building and Times Square (which I did) even if I hadn't gotten a chance to laugh so much three days later my throat is still a little shot (which it is) I would still have to say yes it was. If for nothing else than..."Is that your cat?"
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Play to your Strengths
Maximizer
Input
Empathy
Adaptability
Connectedness
That's me. That list is the list of my Top Five. Anyone who has done one of the Strength Finder programs knows exactly what I am talking about. This blog is for the rest of you.
When I was trying to decide what to do next during my last stretch in the advertising world Scott Dickinson (client and friend) discovered the Strength Finder series and gave me a copy of the book. He had a few reasons, the first was that the book preached to something that he and I had discussed for years, the concept that people do better playing to their strengths instead of wasting time trying to shore up their weaknesses. I have always hated the concept of company reviews that focus on "areas of opportunity" or "growth opportunities" to work on during the next year. Basically weaknesses that they thought you needed to fix to advance. I would always tell Scott, if Jane is great at the register and lousy at the fryer keep her on the register, don't make her learn how to fry! And since he agreed with that concept when he found this series and they were saying the same thing he thought I would love it. He was right.
The second reason is that he wanted to roll the program to his company and wanted my help. To really understand the program I needed to work it as well. And honestly I think he was curious to see what my strengths were. It truly gives you insight into the person you are dealing with if you understand how their mind is working. I tried to get my boss Scott to work the program and try it out in our company. The main reason being there is a section in the book that teaches you how to talk to people with different strengths than yours and I thought how wonderful it would be if after almost a decade of working together off and on we could figure out how to talk so the other one heard us. But no go on his part.
But I did the program and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. If for no other reason it gives you some clarity as to why you do what you do and why not every one else does. The reason I am tucking it in the middle of the job series is because it's one of the things I learned while working for L/N. If not for my job there I wouldn't have worked with Scott D. in the co-op and then in his stores as well. If I hadn't been open to helping with projects that weren't strictly marketing or advertising related he wouldn't have felt he could come to me for help in employee training programs. Remember early on in my working career I learned that by saying yes to different things you often got the opportunity for a more rewarding job experience. Little did I know at the time that it's part of my basic strength group (input).
The Strength Finder concept is that people spend an awful lot of wasted time trying to shore up areas that they think are weaknesses instead of finding out what you are truly good at and focusing on how to make that work for you. It's much easier to excel in an area you are already good at than to excel in an area you are not. Along with this there is the basic reminder that everyone is different. You are rarely going to find two people in your organization (work, family, friends) who have the same Top Five in the same order. You might share some traits but as one might be your number one it might be their number five. And the beauty is this is great. It gives everyone a chance to shine and grow in their area. There are 34 dominant themes or strengths you can have so you see how many possible combinations there are!
Your strengths are so ingrained in you that you don't even realize that not everyone has them. For instance empathy is my third highest strength. When I am having a conversation with someone more often than not I understand and can feel their emotions. When you tell me a sad story I will tear up. When you are telling an angry story I get a little mad as well. And because I can do it so easily I am sometimes amazed when other people miss things. We could be in a meeting at work and afterward I would tell my boss, Man so and so was mad. And he would have missed it completely. He was not strong in empathy. This isn't a weakness of his he needed to work on, it just wasn't his strength. But just because I understand how you are feeling it doesn't mean I agree with it. I am not high in Sympathy. You see?
One of the things Scott would do in his company before the managers would take the test is have them review the brief descriptions of the 34 themes and see if they could pick out their own top five strengths. I don't think anyone has ever gotten all five. I know I didn't. There were so many areas that I thought I would be really high in that didn't make my top five and at first I thought, well that can't be right, but when I read the detailed versions of my top five I had to agree that those things are me. The very core of me. I found myself nodding and laughing as I read the full descriptions knowing they were right and understanding why there were things that made so much sense to me that other people just didn't get. And conversely when I watch someone do something that I could never do in a million years and they do it with ease I know now they are playing to a strength they have and they might not even realize how amazing it is that they can do something other people struggle with.
When something isn't working in my life I stop and think is it because I am trying to approach this in a way that doesn't play to my strengths? If I look at it from another angle will it be easier? Or the very basic, why am I doing this? Is it because I want to or because I feel like I should? I use what I learned from this one simple book more often than I ever thought I would. Which is why (as I said) I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.
The biggest realization I had after reading the book and taking the tests and living with the results for awhile was that I was in the wrong field. I needed to move on to something that played more to my strengths. I had adapted the way I worked to match my strengths, without even realizing what I was doing, but I was really tapped out. At least in that company. It was one of the final pieces I needed to help me move on out the door and on to the next job. Which is a blog for another day.
Here are my strengths in detail in case you are curious as to what makes me tick.
Input
Empathy
Adaptability
Connectedness
That's me. That list is the list of my Top Five. Anyone who has done one of the Strength Finder programs knows exactly what I am talking about. This blog is for the rest of you.
When I was trying to decide what to do next during my last stretch in the advertising world Scott Dickinson (client and friend) discovered the Strength Finder series and gave me a copy of the book. He had a few reasons, the first was that the book preached to something that he and I had discussed for years, the concept that people do better playing to their strengths instead of wasting time trying to shore up their weaknesses. I have always hated the concept of company reviews that focus on "areas of opportunity" or "growth opportunities" to work on during the next year. Basically weaknesses that they thought you needed to fix to advance. I would always tell Scott, if Jane is great at the register and lousy at the fryer keep her on the register, don't make her learn how to fry! And since he agreed with that concept when he found this series and they were saying the same thing he thought I would love it. He was right.
The second reason is that he wanted to roll the program to his company and wanted my help. To really understand the program I needed to work it as well. And honestly I think he was curious to see what my strengths were. It truly gives you insight into the person you are dealing with if you understand how their mind is working. I tried to get my boss Scott to work the program and try it out in our company. The main reason being there is a section in the book that teaches you how to talk to people with different strengths than yours and I thought how wonderful it would be if after almost a decade of working together off and on we could figure out how to talk so the other one heard us. But no go on his part.
But I did the program and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. If for no other reason it gives you some clarity as to why you do what you do and why not every one else does. The reason I am tucking it in the middle of the job series is because it's one of the things I learned while working for L/N. If not for my job there I wouldn't have worked with Scott D. in the co-op and then in his stores as well. If I hadn't been open to helping with projects that weren't strictly marketing or advertising related he wouldn't have felt he could come to me for help in employee training programs. Remember early on in my working career I learned that by saying yes to different things you often got the opportunity for a more rewarding job experience. Little did I know at the time that it's part of my basic strength group (input).
The Strength Finder concept is that people spend an awful lot of wasted time trying to shore up areas that they think are weaknesses instead of finding out what you are truly good at and focusing on how to make that work for you. It's much easier to excel in an area you are already good at than to excel in an area you are not. Along with this there is the basic reminder that everyone is different. You are rarely going to find two people in your organization (work, family, friends) who have the same Top Five in the same order. You might share some traits but as one might be your number one it might be their number five. And the beauty is this is great. It gives everyone a chance to shine and grow in their area. There are 34 dominant themes or strengths you can have so you see how many possible combinations there are!
Your strengths are so ingrained in you that you don't even realize that not everyone has them. For instance empathy is my third highest strength. When I am having a conversation with someone more often than not I understand and can feel their emotions. When you tell me a sad story I will tear up. When you are telling an angry story I get a little mad as well. And because I can do it so easily I am sometimes amazed when other people miss things. We could be in a meeting at work and afterward I would tell my boss, Man so and so was mad. And he would have missed it completely. He was not strong in empathy. This isn't a weakness of his he needed to work on, it just wasn't his strength. But just because I understand how you are feeling it doesn't mean I agree with it. I am not high in Sympathy. You see?
One of the things Scott would do in his company before the managers would take the test is have them review the brief descriptions of the 34 themes and see if they could pick out their own top five strengths. I don't think anyone has ever gotten all five. I know I didn't. There were so many areas that I thought I would be really high in that didn't make my top five and at first I thought, well that can't be right, but when I read the detailed versions of my top five I had to agree that those things are me. The very core of me. I found myself nodding and laughing as I read the full descriptions knowing they were right and understanding why there were things that made so much sense to me that other people just didn't get. And conversely when I watch someone do something that I could never do in a million years and they do it with ease I know now they are playing to a strength they have and they might not even realize how amazing it is that they can do something other people struggle with.
When something isn't working in my life I stop and think is it because I am trying to approach this in a way that doesn't play to my strengths? If I look at it from another angle will it be easier? Or the very basic, why am I doing this? Is it because I want to or because I feel like I should? I use what I learned from this one simple book more often than I ever thought I would. Which is why (as I said) I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.
The biggest realization I had after reading the book and taking the tests and living with the results for awhile was that I was in the wrong field. I needed to move on to something that played more to my strengths. I had adapted the way I worked to match my strengths, without even realizing what I was doing, but I was really tapped out. At least in that company. It was one of the final pieces I needed to help me move on out the door and on to the next job. Which is a blog for another day.
Here are my strengths in detail in case you are curious as to what makes me tick.
My Strengths
Maximizer
Excellence, not average, is your measure. Taking something from below average to slightly above average takes a great deal of effort and in your opinion is not very rewarding. Transforming something strong into something superb takes just as much effort but is much more thrilling. Strengths, whether yours or someone else’s, fascinate you. Like a diver after pearls, you search them out, watching for the telltale signs of a strength. A glimpse of untutored excellence, rapid learning, a skill mastered without recourse to steps—all these are clues that a strength may be in play. And having found a strength, you feel compelled to nurture it, refine it, and stretch it toward excellence. You polish the pearl until it shines. This natural sorting of strengths means that others see you as discriminating. You choose to spend time with people who appreciate your particular strengths. Likewise, you are attracted to others who seem to have found and cultivated their own strengths. You tend to avoid those who want to fix you and make you well rounded. You don’t want to spend your life bemoaning what you lack. Rather, you want to capitalize on the gifts with which you are blessed. It’s more fun. It’s more productive. And, counterintuitively, it is more demanding.
Input
You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information—words, facts, books, and quotations—or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts. These can be acquired and then stored away. Why are they worth storing? At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? With all those possible uses in mind,you really don’t feel comfortable throwing anything away. So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It’s interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable.
Empathy
You can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are your own. Intuitively, you are able to see the world through their eyes and share their perspective. You do not necessarily agree with each person’s perspective. You do not necessarily feel pity for each person’s predicament—this would be sympathy, not Empathy. You do not necessarily condone the choices each person makes, but you do understand. This instinctive ability to understand is powerful. You hear the unvoiced questions. You anticipate the need. Where others grapple for words, you seem to find the right words and the right tone. You help people find the right phrases to express their feelings—to themselves as well as to others. You help them give voice to their emotional life. For all these reasons other people are drawn to you.
Adaptability
You live in the moment. You don’t see the future as a fixed destination. Instead, you see it as a place that you create out of the choices that you make right now. And so you discover your future one choice at a time. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have plans. You probably do. But this theme of Adaptability does enable you to respond willingly to the demands of the moment even if they pull you away from your plans. Unlike some, you don’t resent sudden requests or unforeseen detours. You expect them. They are inevitable. Indeed, on some level you actually look forward to them. You are, at heart, a very flexible person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling you in many different directions at once.
Connectedness
Things happen for a reason. You are sure of it. You are sure of it because in your soul you know that we are all connected. Yes, we are individuals, responsible for our own judgments and in possession of our own free will, but nonetheless we are part of something larger. Some may call it the collective unconscious. Others may label it spirit or life force. But whatever your word of choice, you gain confidence from knowing that we are not isolated from one another or from the earth and the life on it. This feeling of Connectedness implies certain responsibilities. If we are all part of a larger picture, then we must not harm others because we will be harming ourselves. We must not exploit because we will be exploiting ourselves. Your awareness of these responsibilities creates your value system. You are considerate, caring, and accepting. Certain of the unity of humankind, you are a bridge builder for people of different cultures. Sensitive to the invisible hand, you can give others comfort that there is a purpose beyond our humdrum lives. The exact articles of your faith will depend on your upbringing and your culture, but your faith is strong. It sustains you and your close friends in the face of life’s mysteries.
Excellence, not average, is your measure. Taking something from below average to slightly above average takes a great deal of effort and in your opinion is not very rewarding. Transforming something strong into something superb takes just as much effort but is much more thrilling. Strengths, whether yours or someone else’s, fascinate you. Like a diver after pearls, you search them out, watching for the telltale signs of a strength. A glimpse of untutored excellence, rapid learning, a skill mastered without recourse to steps—all these are clues that a strength may be in play. And having found a strength, you feel compelled to nurture it, refine it, and stretch it toward excellence. You polish the pearl until it shines. This natural sorting of strengths means that others see you as discriminating. You choose to spend time with people who appreciate your particular strengths. Likewise, you are attracted to others who seem to have found and cultivated their own strengths. You tend to avoid those who want to fix you and make you well rounded. You don’t want to spend your life bemoaning what you lack. Rather, you want to capitalize on the gifts with which you are blessed. It’s more fun. It’s more productive. And, counterintuitively, it is more demanding.
Input
You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information—words, facts, books, and quotations—or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts. These can be acquired and then stored away. Why are they worth storing? At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? With all those possible uses in mind,you really don’t feel comfortable throwing anything away. So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It’s interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable.
Empathy
You can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are your own. Intuitively, you are able to see the world through their eyes and share their perspective. You do not necessarily agree with each person’s perspective. You do not necessarily feel pity for each person’s predicament—this would be sympathy, not Empathy. You do not necessarily condone the choices each person makes, but you do understand. This instinctive ability to understand is powerful. You hear the unvoiced questions. You anticipate the need. Where others grapple for words, you seem to find the right words and the right tone. You help people find the right phrases to express their feelings—to themselves as well as to others. You help them give voice to their emotional life. For all these reasons other people are drawn to you.
Adaptability
You live in the moment. You don’t see the future as a fixed destination. Instead, you see it as a place that you create out of the choices that you make right now. And so you discover your future one choice at a time. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have plans. You probably do. But this theme of Adaptability does enable you to respond willingly to the demands of the moment even if they pull you away from your plans. Unlike some, you don’t resent sudden requests or unforeseen detours. You expect them. They are inevitable. Indeed, on some level you actually look forward to them. You are, at heart, a very flexible person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling you in many different directions at once.
Connectedness
Things happen for a reason. You are sure of it. You are sure of it because in your soul you know that we are all connected. Yes, we are individuals, responsible for our own judgments and in possession of our own free will, but nonetheless we are part of something larger. Some may call it the collective unconscious. Others may label it spirit or life force. But whatever your word of choice, you gain confidence from knowing that we are not isolated from one another or from the earth and the life on it. This feeling of Connectedness implies certain responsibilities. If we are all part of a larger picture, then we must not harm others because we will be harming ourselves. We must not exploit because we will be exploiting ourselves. Your awareness of these responsibilities creates your value system. You are considerate, caring, and accepting. Certain of the unity of humankind, you are a bridge builder for people of different cultures. Sensitive to the invisible hand, you can give others comfort that there is a purpose beyond our humdrum lives. The exact articles of your faith will depend on your upbringing and your culture, but your faith is strong. It sustains you and your close friends in the face of life’s mysteries.
Monday, November 1, 2010
And that's a wrap from the world of Advertising...
I talked about the process of leaving advertising in this blog series so I won't go back over that, but I do want to talk about that year a little more in depth and that will be the next job on the list. But first I want to share a couple more things I learned from my time at L/N.
One of the things that happens when you work on a national account on a local level is you have to learn how to play with one foot in each arena. On the local level my media director and I were the big fish. We made the decisions on where ads were placed, what we would and would not recommend to the co-op and why. On a national level our agency was small potatoes. We handled two co-ops and weren't considered big players. At least when I first started.
As I mentioned we had a few national players in our co-op and so I was able to get a few introductions to co-op members and agencies from around the country and to people on the corporate side. Falling back on my stance of "I don't have any idea what I am doing" I listened, I asked questions and I paid attention to the answers. And by doing this I started to get a reputation for the agency as maybe a little more than a small shop content with handling just the two co-ops we had. We started to be asked to pitch other co-ops. We got the nod to present information at national marketing meetings on what we were doing out in the Northwest. And if the agency hadn't been crumbling around us I think Jenny and I and then later Sheila and I could have taken L/N to the next level. As much as I didn't agree with Scott as a business man he was an outstanding Ad Man and pitch guy. I could bring in the facts, the numbers and the face that they were used to seeing at meetings and he brought in the gravitas of having the "AGENCY PRINCIPAL" there the pitch the client.
More than once it was down to us and AFA. AFA was the original advertising agency for Kentucky Fried Chicken. The big dogs in our world. There were two or three agencies handling the majority of the work and AFA was always our main competition. Losing to them stung but it was an expected loss and every time we felt like we were getting that much closer to beating them out. We were shinier (Scott loved newer, bigger and better), they had the bulk of the machine behind them. Almost everything they did was KFC focused and KFC was only one of a variety of clients for us. Of course we each pitched that as our strength. For us it was you will get the benefit of our variety for them it was you will get the benefit of our focus. I still think given another year or maybe two and we would have started winning a few of those pitches. But as they say, it was an honor just to be nominated. And it was a honor to go from being "Jack's new girl" to "You know Denise from L/N right?" I know you are supposed to not care if people know who you are, but I liked knowing that I was making a name for the agency and a name for myself in the process.
Also working with folks from all over the country you form relationships with people online, on the phone and the 3 or 4 times a year you see them face to face at meetings. In Louisville there is an agency that handles the bulk of the print advertising for KFC. About 6 months after I started back with L/N I was at my second national meeting and I sat next to a woman that was just starting with Creative Alliance. AJ. AJ and I hit it off right away. Over COB. Every organization has Acronyms. And every organization uses them in meetings and internal print like you should automatically know what they mean. So in this meeting there was a huge push for more COB. Why were we getting away from COB? COB built the brand! And I look over at AJ and she is paging through her presentation materials and has just the most puzzled look on her face, so I lean in and say...Chicken on the Bone instead of boneless chicken, COB. And this look of relief floods her face and we were friends from there on out.
Now to CA we were the clients, just like KFC was our client and so I had account managers through the years with CA. Starting with AJ who was then promoted to head of her department and she would assign the new account managers to me. I am not sure if it was because she and I were friendly or if it was just dumb luck but my account people through CA were all exceptional. And even being out of the business for more than a few years I still have a handful on my friend list (ah Facebook again)and I get to stay a part of their lives even though I am no longer with KFC, and I get to see pictures of their kids and wish I was closer to play auntie! So there are two lessons here, one is make friends with the boss and you get good people to work with you. The second is watch what you say when someone asks you a random question. Wait? What was that second one? Here is the story, you knew one was coming right?
So Holly was one of my account people and she and I hit it off right away and completely. You know those people you meet that you just feel like you have known forever? She is one of those for me. After Holly and I had been working together for awhile I was back in Louisville for a marketing trip and CA was doing the client relation thing and took me out to dinner and drinks. Holly and I were sitting at the bar and she asks me if I know Cynthia Koplos. Well it was a silly question. I was in marketing and Cynthia was the face of KFC corporate marketing. She is the person that stands in front of the masses at these meetings and presents the corporate marketing plan. I obviously knew her. Then Holly asks what I think of her. Well, thinking before I speak sometimes fails me. What I should have done was said, "Why?" Instead I gave Holly my unvarnished and completely honest answer of what I thought of Cynthia, and I went on for about 5 minutes with it as I had a lot to say about how I felt about her. And when I was through Holly said, "She's my aunt." You could have knocked me over with a feather. I had worked with Holly for (I want to say) at least a year by this point and NO ONE had ever told me. I look over at AJ and she tells me that they have all been sworn to secrecy so that no one would treat Holly differently due to who her aunt was.
So the good thing? I had nothing but praise for her aunt. She is one of those women that I always wanted to be. She would stand in front of a group of sometimes very hostile franchisees and agency people who were trying their best to show how smart they were and take question after question after question and more than her fair share of abuse and she did it wearing a smile and maintaining her composure the entire time. To me she just embodied strong professional woman. And I thought she was funny and smart. Which as you all know to me, funny and smart are the one two punch in personality that trump everything else. I do believe I slugged Holly in the arm and asked her what she would have done if I had hated her aunt? She told me she wasn't worried since I loved her I was obviously a good judge of character. And then the part that made me get all smug for a little bit, Holly told me that her aunt had nothing but good things to say about me as well.
I was completely taken aback. I had no idea she even knew who I was. Years later I am glad to count her as friend, but I will never forget calling Scott Dickinson and telling him that Cynthia knew who I was and LIKED me. Do you know why she liked me? She probably doesn't remember, but I do. She told Holly that I was always careful to come to her after a presentation if I noticed a typo or a transposed number instead of calling it out in front of the room. Now I wasn't ever afraid to ask questions about the actual content of a presentation and to do that in front of the group, but I never understood the perverse pleasure some people took in pointing out silly mistakes. But I did want her to be aware of them since they would be presenting those same foils at regional meetings as well. That small act stood out to her and so she had started paying more attention to what I was doing in the group as well. And she liked me. Or she made all of that up because she was smart enough to ask "Why?" when Holly asked if she knew me.
So that wraps up the lessons part of my second stint at the agency. And really it's the same lessons as the first part, be yourself. By being myself I put the agency in a position to grow. And by being myself (even in the not thinking before speaking part) I was able to show Cynthia a small kindness that stuck out to her, and was able to be honest with Holly how I felt about her aunt. And because of that I have kept the friendship of both women to this day.
Okay, next up...the year of living dangerously! Or how I discovered what busy really means.
One of the things that happens when you work on a national account on a local level is you have to learn how to play with one foot in each arena. On the local level my media director and I were the big fish. We made the decisions on where ads were placed, what we would and would not recommend to the co-op and why. On a national level our agency was small potatoes. We handled two co-ops and weren't considered big players. At least when I first started.
As I mentioned we had a few national players in our co-op and so I was able to get a few introductions to co-op members and agencies from around the country and to people on the corporate side. Falling back on my stance of "I don't have any idea what I am doing" I listened, I asked questions and I paid attention to the answers. And by doing this I started to get a reputation for the agency as maybe a little more than a small shop content with handling just the two co-ops we had. We started to be asked to pitch other co-ops. We got the nod to present information at national marketing meetings on what we were doing out in the Northwest. And if the agency hadn't been crumbling around us I think Jenny and I and then later Sheila and I could have taken L/N to the next level. As much as I didn't agree with Scott as a business man he was an outstanding Ad Man and pitch guy. I could bring in the facts, the numbers and the face that they were used to seeing at meetings and he brought in the gravitas of having the "AGENCY PRINCIPAL" there the pitch the client.
More than once it was down to us and AFA. AFA was the original advertising agency for Kentucky Fried Chicken. The big dogs in our world. There were two or three agencies handling the majority of the work and AFA was always our main competition. Losing to them stung but it was an expected loss and every time we felt like we were getting that much closer to beating them out. We were shinier (Scott loved newer, bigger and better), they had the bulk of the machine behind them. Almost everything they did was KFC focused and KFC was only one of a variety of clients for us. Of course we each pitched that as our strength. For us it was you will get the benefit of our variety for them it was you will get the benefit of our focus. I still think given another year or maybe two and we would have started winning a few of those pitches. But as they say, it was an honor just to be nominated. And it was a honor to go from being "Jack's new girl" to "You know Denise from L/N right?" I know you are supposed to not care if people know who you are, but I liked knowing that I was making a name for the agency and a name for myself in the process.
Also working with folks from all over the country you form relationships with people online, on the phone and the 3 or 4 times a year you see them face to face at meetings. In Louisville there is an agency that handles the bulk of the print advertising for KFC. About 6 months after I started back with L/N I was at my second national meeting and I sat next to a woman that was just starting with Creative Alliance. AJ. AJ and I hit it off right away. Over COB. Every organization has Acronyms. And every organization uses them in meetings and internal print like you should automatically know what they mean. So in this meeting there was a huge push for more COB. Why were we getting away from COB? COB built the brand! And I look over at AJ and she is paging through her presentation materials and has just the most puzzled look on her face, so I lean in and say...Chicken on the Bone instead of boneless chicken, COB. And this look of relief floods her face and we were friends from there on out.
Now to CA we were the clients, just like KFC was our client and so I had account managers through the years with CA. Starting with AJ who was then promoted to head of her department and she would assign the new account managers to me. I am not sure if it was because she and I were friendly or if it was just dumb luck but my account people through CA were all exceptional. And even being out of the business for more than a few years I still have a handful on my friend list (ah Facebook again)and I get to stay a part of their lives even though I am no longer with KFC, and I get to see pictures of their kids and wish I was closer to play auntie! So there are two lessons here, one is make friends with the boss and you get good people to work with you. The second is watch what you say when someone asks you a random question. Wait? What was that second one? Here is the story, you knew one was coming right?
So Holly was one of my account people and she and I hit it off right away and completely. You know those people you meet that you just feel like you have known forever? She is one of those for me. After Holly and I had been working together for awhile I was back in Louisville for a marketing trip and CA was doing the client relation thing and took me out to dinner and drinks. Holly and I were sitting at the bar and she asks me if I know Cynthia Koplos. Well it was a silly question. I was in marketing and Cynthia was the face of KFC corporate marketing. She is the person that stands in front of the masses at these meetings and presents the corporate marketing plan. I obviously knew her. Then Holly asks what I think of her. Well, thinking before I speak sometimes fails me. What I should have done was said, "Why?" Instead I gave Holly my unvarnished and completely honest answer of what I thought of Cynthia, and I went on for about 5 minutes with it as I had a lot to say about how I felt about her. And when I was through Holly said, "She's my aunt." You could have knocked me over with a feather. I had worked with Holly for (I want to say) at least a year by this point and NO ONE had ever told me. I look over at AJ and she tells me that they have all been sworn to secrecy so that no one would treat Holly differently due to who her aunt was.
So the good thing? I had nothing but praise for her aunt. She is one of those women that I always wanted to be. She would stand in front of a group of sometimes very hostile franchisees and agency people who were trying their best to show how smart they were and take question after question after question and more than her fair share of abuse and she did it wearing a smile and maintaining her composure the entire time. To me she just embodied strong professional woman. And I thought she was funny and smart. Which as you all know to me, funny and smart are the one two punch in personality that trump everything else. I do believe I slugged Holly in the arm and asked her what she would have done if I had hated her aunt? She told me she wasn't worried since I loved her I was obviously a good judge of character. And then the part that made me get all smug for a little bit, Holly told me that her aunt had nothing but good things to say about me as well.
I was completely taken aback. I had no idea she even knew who I was. Years later I am glad to count her as friend, but I will never forget calling Scott Dickinson and telling him that Cynthia knew who I was and LIKED me. Do you know why she liked me? She probably doesn't remember, but I do. She told Holly that I was always careful to come to her after a presentation if I noticed a typo or a transposed number instead of calling it out in front of the room. Now I wasn't ever afraid to ask questions about the actual content of a presentation and to do that in front of the group, but I never understood the perverse pleasure some people took in pointing out silly mistakes. But I did want her to be aware of them since they would be presenting those same foils at regional meetings as well. That small act stood out to her and so she had started paying more attention to what I was doing in the group as well. And she liked me. Or she made all of that up because she was smart enough to ask "Why?" when Holly asked if she knew me.
So that wraps up the lessons part of my second stint at the agency. And really it's the same lessons as the first part, be yourself. By being myself I put the agency in a position to grow. And by being myself (even in the not thinking before speaking part) I was able to show Cynthia a small kindness that stuck out to her, and was able to be honest with Holly how I felt about her aunt. And because of that I have kept the friendship of both women to this day.
Okay, next up...the year of living dangerously! Or how I discovered what busy really means.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The glamorous world of Advertising take two...
I had coffee this morning with the L in L/N the Livengood in Livengood and Company so I figured this was a good omen for restarting (and finishing) the work series.
When we left off we were leaving Colorado Springs and heading back to Portland. Brent was transferred before the school year was over so C and I had stayed behind to sell the house and finish the school year while Brent found a new place to settle in that would be ready to go when we got here. Once he found the house we had a small hiccup with the VA Loan. They did not want to do trailing spouse income and to afford the loan we needed my income. Hmmm...what to do? So I sent an email to Jack and Scott asking if they would do me a huge favor and say they would hire me back. They didn't have to, they could "fire" me as soon as I set foot in Oregon, but I just needed something that said I would have income.
Jack sent me a return email saying..."Well actually..." as fate would have it the day that my email hit Portland Jack and Scott had been discussing some staff changes they needed to make. Seems that the person handling the Account Management for KFC was just not working out. Since I had been handling all of the financial tracking and sales information for KFC before I left for Colorado how hard would it be to have me step in to a new role and actually come back to the agency? After some negotiations about what exactly my new role would entail I agreed to come back and they agreed to send a letter to the bank.
So I came back to what was now L/N (formerly Livengood and Company) and started round two. The original idea was that I would start with handling KFC and once I had that under my belt I could possibly take back over the bookkeeping duties, all while working in the office only the hours that C was in school. Jack is a master at figuring out how to get the most bang for his hiring buck. Scott wasn't really keen on the idea of me taking over the bookkeeping again if I was going to be an account manager as well. I decided it didn't really matter to me and I would work where they put me. Turns out that handling the account management for KFC wasn't quite enough, but adding in Perfect Look and some random projects was plenty and taking back the bookkeeping would be just too much.
So what did I learn? What didn't I learn is more like it! I stepped into a completely new field for me. One that I had watched from the outside, but not from the client management side. And it was a challenge. Jack was in the process of leaving the agency and handing the reigns over to Scott and as soon as I was settled he found the door. Brent kept telling me to take it as a vote of confidence but I was in a dead panic my first 6 months on the job and for as many years as I did it, I never really got over that feeling of uncertainty. And I honestly believe that that feeling is probably what made me do a better job. You wonder why? Well I will tell you...
When you feel like you know everything and are the expert you don't ask many questions. When you are sure that you know it all, you don't ask any questions. When you are pretty sure you are the slowest one in the room, you ask a lot of questions. And you listen intently to the answers. Account management in the advertising world is people management. KFC worked on a co-op system so I was managing the advertising co-op of all of the owners in our area as well as Bend/Redmond and Eugene. Now each one of these owners is the head of their company and has worked very hard to get where they are, and each one is an expert in their own field. And not a single one of them was okay with being told what to do ever. So here I came the person who was now going to help them with the advertising needs and the first thing I did was ask a lot of questions. What do you want? What can we do for you? What piece do you think is missing? And I listened. From Jack I learned that the last thing you ever said to a client on a phone call was "Is there anything I can do for you?" You would be surprised how far this went.
Not only did the group feel like I really did want to help them and their business but they felt like I was really listening, and that I really needed their help as well. They took me on tours of their restaurants, introduced me to their crews, let me sit in on new product training, invited me to conferences and did everything they could to make me the best ad person I could possibly be. And I am forever grateful for their patience and their friendships.
When I started Gevan Reid was the president of the co-op and that man could talk. It was amazing. He would tell these long long stories that went in a million directions but they always came full circle and ended up where he started. I was amazed. But by listening to him talk (on plane trips, in meetings, on the phone) I learned about the history of his company and of KFC in the region and I also learned how hard it was being a single store operator in the middle of a group of multi-store owners. So I learned his concerns. Next up was Sam Sibert (and later his son Brett took over) he was the big player in the group and I learned from him what the responsibilities of a national player in the KFCC organization were along with the unique responsibilities of someone who owned the lion's share of the stores in our market.
The Stewarts taught me what it was like to own pockets of stores all across the country and what it meant doing business with family when you didn't always agree with each other. I also knew that if I had a number off in a presentation Todd would find it so I better be dialed in, and I knew that if things were just too stressful in a meeting all I had to do was look for Justin and he would smile and tell a joke and the whole room would lighten up. Jeff Gray taught me about golf (very important in the business world, actually!) and that a simple phone call just to see how someone is doing goes a long way. Don Herber was the operator that everyone turned to to see how he was doing it. So he was my operations guy. If I had a question on how a campaign would affect the stores he could tell me. He also was my coupon king. He knew his numbers, what worked, what didn't and why. Scott Dickinson was my go to guy. He was the operator that was closest to the agency so he ended up being the eyes and ears for the co-op most often. And his help was invaluable through the years. He let me sit in on (and run a few) employee meetings. He let me train in his restaurant how to make products when they first came out. When he was president of the co-op he would preview the presentations and let me know what was wrong with them.
Scott was also a big national player with KFCC, second generation owner and very well known in that arena so he opened a lot of doors for me nationally that the agency didn't have access to before. I got to meet with people on the corporate side, owners from other parts of the country and their agencies. This was incredible information for me. I got a chance to see what was coming from corporate and hear not only what my operators thought about it but what other parts of the country thought, and what their agencies thought. And that was a lot of help as well. I will circle back to this in another job blog.
My co-op members were incredible to work with and as I talked about in the leaving advertising blog series they really were the reason I stayed so long. One of the things I learned from them as a group was not to take it personally. After a long day of meetings starting with operations then a KFCC presentation then an advertising presentation you would think the last thing they would want to do is spend time together. Especially because meetings could get heated. They had stores in different areas with different needs and they were all trying to come to a consensus as a group. But when the meeting was done 90% of the time they would all head out to a nearby bar for a drink. And I always got to go as well. This time together was not about sales (though they did talk about business) it was about friendships. How are the kids? How was that vacation? When are you breaking ground for the new store? I learned as much if not more from the after meetings than I did in the actual meetings. No matter how angry they got with each other they set it aside for the good of the business and they set it aside to remain friendly. Not always an easy thing to do. And as I got a chance to visit with other co-ops and agencies I discovered that this was the exception not the rule.
I also had the lesson of who do you trust? This was for my first co-op meeting. I had been back at the agency for one week when the first co-op meeting came. I was going in with information that the person I replaced put together and my head was spinning with trying to absorb it all. The day before in the office when Jack picked up his meeting book and went over his presentation with me he said, "Just be yourself. You just have to listen in this meeting, ask questions if you aren't following something and just be you. You will be fine." and then he left for the day. Then as I was getting ready to leave, packing up my books and the presentation materials for the next day Scott came to my desk and said, "So tomorrow, maybe don't talk at all. Be a little less...well...you. You know I like you, and I am used to your sense of humor and how brazen you are and I think you're very funny, but these guys are different. So maybe just be less." And I had to laugh. I had Jack saying, "Just be you" and Scott saying, "Just don't be you" so what do you do? Well...during a break in the meeting the guys were talking about a trip to Vegas they had just gone on and Sam was talking about the Shadow Bar in Caesars. Now I had just been there on a boxing trip and knew the place very well and had a theory about it. So my first dilemma was do I listen to Jack and tell my theory or do I listen to Scott and sit quietly? Well those of you that know me know it wasn't much of a choice at all. So I told Sam, "I have a theory about that place. I think it's for the dancers who have the great bodies but have a...well... a face that is better seen in the dark." Don spit his drink out laughing, Sam about fell over in his chair and I knew I was in. From that point on they knew that they could be themselves around me without worry and that I would be myself around them as well. Trust the person that tells you to be yourself, because you are going to be that eventually anyway.
So really to break it down I learned to be myself and that if you don't know something ask. You will find that people generally want to help you. They want you to succeed and if they can help you succeed then they get to feel pretty good about it as well. Eventually I did become the expert in my area. I found that I knew more than I didn't know, but I never lost the art of the well placed question. Even if I knew the answer. Or at least thought I did. Because sometimes when you think you know...you find out you don't know at all.
When we left off we were leaving Colorado Springs and heading back to Portland. Brent was transferred before the school year was over so C and I had stayed behind to sell the house and finish the school year while Brent found a new place to settle in that would be ready to go when we got here. Once he found the house we had a small hiccup with the VA Loan. They did not want to do trailing spouse income and to afford the loan we needed my income. Hmmm...what to do? So I sent an email to Jack and Scott asking if they would do me a huge favor and say they would hire me back. They didn't have to, they could "fire" me as soon as I set foot in Oregon, but I just needed something that said I would have income.
Jack sent me a return email saying..."Well actually..." as fate would have it the day that my email hit Portland Jack and Scott had been discussing some staff changes they needed to make. Seems that the person handling the Account Management for KFC was just not working out. Since I had been handling all of the financial tracking and sales information for KFC before I left for Colorado how hard would it be to have me step in to a new role and actually come back to the agency? After some negotiations about what exactly my new role would entail I agreed to come back and they agreed to send a letter to the bank.
So I came back to what was now L/N (formerly Livengood and Company) and started round two. The original idea was that I would start with handling KFC and once I had that under my belt I could possibly take back over the bookkeeping duties, all while working in the office only the hours that C was in school. Jack is a master at figuring out how to get the most bang for his hiring buck. Scott wasn't really keen on the idea of me taking over the bookkeeping again if I was going to be an account manager as well. I decided it didn't really matter to me and I would work where they put me. Turns out that handling the account management for KFC wasn't quite enough, but adding in Perfect Look and some random projects was plenty and taking back the bookkeeping would be just too much.
So what did I learn? What didn't I learn is more like it! I stepped into a completely new field for me. One that I had watched from the outside, but not from the client management side. And it was a challenge. Jack was in the process of leaving the agency and handing the reigns over to Scott and as soon as I was settled he found the door. Brent kept telling me to take it as a vote of confidence but I was in a dead panic my first 6 months on the job and for as many years as I did it, I never really got over that feeling of uncertainty. And I honestly believe that that feeling is probably what made me do a better job. You wonder why? Well I will tell you...
When you feel like you know everything and are the expert you don't ask many questions. When you are sure that you know it all, you don't ask any questions. When you are pretty sure you are the slowest one in the room, you ask a lot of questions. And you listen intently to the answers. Account management in the advertising world is people management. KFC worked on a co-op system so I was managing the advertising co-op of all of the owners in our area as well as Bend/Redmond and Eugene. Now each one of these owners is the head of their company and has worked very hard to get where they are, and each one is an expert in their own field. And not a single one of them was okay with being told what to do ever. So here I came the person who was now going to help them with the advertising needs and the first thing I did was ask a lot of questions. What do you want? What can we do for you? What piece do you think is missing? And I listened. From Jack I learned that the last thing you ever said to a client on a phone call was "Is there anything I can do for you?" You would be surprised how far this went.
Not only did the group feel like I really did want to help them and their business but they felt like I was really listening, and that I really needed their help as well. They took me on tours of their restaurants, introduced me to their crews, let me sit in on new product training, invited me to conferences and did everything they could to make me the best ad person I could possibly be. And I am forever grateful for their patience and their friendships.
When I started Gevan Reid was the president of the co-op and that man could talk. It was amazing. He would tell these long long stories that went in a million directions but they always came full circle and ended up where he started. I was amazed. But by listening to him talk (on plane trips, in meetings, on the phone) I learned about the history of his company and of KFC in the region and I also learned how hard it was being a single store operator in the middle of a group of multi-store owners. So I learned his concerns. Next up was Sam Sibert (and later his son Brett took over) he was the big player in the group and I learned from him what the responsibilities of a national player in the KFCC organization were along with the unique responsibilities of someone who owned the lion's share of the stores in our market.
The Stewarts taught me what it was like to own pockets of stores all across the country and what it meant doing business with family when you didn't always agree with each other. I also knew that if I had a number off in a presentation Todd would find it so I better be dialed in, and I knew that if things were just too stressful in a meeting all I had to do was look for Justin and he would smile and tell a joke and the whole room would lighten up. Jeff Gray taught me about golf (very important in the business world, actually!) and that a simple phone call just to see how someone is doing goes a long way. Don Herber was the operator that everyone turned to to see how he was doing it. So he was my operations guy. If I had a question on how a campaign would affect the stores he could tell me. He also was my coupon king. He knew his numbers, what worked, what didn't and why. Scott Dickinson was my go to guy. He was the operator that was closest to the agency so he ended up being the eyes and ears for the co-op most often. And his help was invaluable through the years. He let me sit in on (and run a few) employee meetings. He let me train in his restaurant how to make products when they first came out. When he was president of the co-op he would preview the presentations and let me know what was wrong with them.
Scott was also a big national player with KFCC, second generation owner and very well known in that arena so he opened a lot of doors for me nationally that the agency didn't have access to before. I got to meet with people on the corporate side, owners from other parts of the country and their agencies. This was incredible information for me. I got a chance to see what was coming from corporate and hear not only what my operators thought about it but what other parts of the country thought, and what their agencies thought. And that was a lot of help as well. I will circle back to this in another job blog.
My co-op members were incredible to work with and as I talked about in the leaving advertising blog series they really were the reason I stayed so long. One of the things I learned from them as a group was not to take it personally. After a long day of meetings starting with operations then a KFCC presentation then an advertising presentation you would think the last thing they would want to do is spend time together. Especially because meetings could get heated. They had stores in different areas with different needs and they were all trying to come to a consensus as a group. But when the meeting was done 90% of the time they would all head out to a nearby bar for a drink. And I always got to go as well. This time together was not about sales (though they did talk about business) it was about friendships. How are the kids? How was that vacation? When are you breaking ground for the new store? I learned as much if not more from the after meetings than I did in the actual meetings. No matter how angry they got with each other they set it aside for the good of the business and they set it aside to remain friendly. Not always an easy thing to do. And as I got a chance to visit with other co-ops and agencies I discovered that this was the exception not the rule.
I also had the lesson of who do you trust? This was for my first co-op meeting. I had been back at the agency for one week when the first co-op meeting came. I was going in with information that the person I replaced put together and my head was spinning with trying to absorb it all. The day before in the office when Jack picked up his meeting book and went over his presentation with me he said, "Just be yourself. You just have to listen in this meeting, ask questions if you aren't following something and just be you. You will be fine." and then he left for the day. Then as I was getting ready to leave, packing up my books and the presentation materials for the next day Scott came to my desk and said, "So tomorrow, maybe don't talk at all. Be a little less...well...you. You know I like you, and I am used to your sense of humor and how brazen you are and I think you're very funny, but these guys are different. So maybe just be less." And I had to laugh. I had Jack saying, "Just be you" and Scott saying, "Just don't be you" so what do you do? Well...during a break in the meeting the guys were talking about a trip to Vegas they had just gone on and Sam was talking about the Shadow Bar in Caesars. Now I had just been there on a boxing trip and knew the place very well and had a theory about it. So my first dilemma was do I listen to Jack and tell my theory or do I listen to Scott and sit quietly? Well those of you that know me know it wasn't much of a choice at all. So I told Sam, "I have a theory about that place. I think it's for the dancers who have the great bodies but have a...well... a face that is better seen in the dark." Don spit his drink out laughing, Sam about fell over in his chair and I knew I was in. From that point on they knew that they could be themselves around me without worry and that I would be myself around them as well. Trust the person that tells you to be yourself, because you are going to be that eventually anyway.
So really to break it down I learned to be myself and that if you don't know something ask. You will find that people generally want to help you. They want you to succeed and if they can help you succeed then they get to feel pretty good about it as well. Eventually I did become the expert in my area. I found that I knew more than I didn't know, but I never lost the art of the well placed question. Even if I knew the answer. Or at least thought I did. Because sometimes when you think you know...you find out you don't know at all.
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