Everyone Needs A George For Christmas

When I was growing up there was an older man who was a bachelor who lived down the road from us. He had spent all of his years with his parents on the family farm and had never travelled further than 20 miles from his home in his entire life. He drove a 1957 yellow Chevy truck that had never gone faster than 40km/hour. He had never married and stayed with his mother until she passed away when I was about 8 years old.

Life on the farm 30 years ago was simpler than how we know it to be today. Nobody thought of any evil that could befall a child so my brother and I often popped in to see old George when he was gardening in the summer or even for a tea in the winter. His home was only a mile away and he always had a cookie for us and a great story so we visited often and we even hung out to watch soap operas on television. He told us about jewellery that had come from pirates and had kept clippings from the Queen’s visit to Canada for decades. He told us about a good horse he once had, and how a visitor had come from Manitoba once and he even lamented about the woman he should have married many years before.  Most of the adults in his life had no time for him because he talked too much but my brother James and I were intrigued with his antiques and his yarns about people who had long since disappeared from his life.

Our parents also had a fondness for George and would invite him to join the family for Thanksgiving and Christmas. He had a very sensitive stomach and ate little but he always tried a shortbread cookie that I had baked for him and I would have to hear the same story about his Mother’s baking while he ate it. One year George even brought a special gift for me. It was a beautiful blond walking doll that went delightfully with another one that my parents had bought for me. I remember being so excited about it.

As a young adult after leaving home I still made the trip to see George at Christmas time when I was home visiting the farm. Until one year it came to an end because he finally passed on himself and then all that was left was the memory.

I hope that you stop long enough in life to find a George. I hope that you share the blessings of the festivities with someone who does not have anyone else to share with. I hope that you treasure their stories and hear their heart. And mostly I hope that the memory warms every Christmas thereafter.

Merry Christmas!

Kerry George

Always Loyal2U

Put A Little Christmas In Your Season

I am not that old but I did grow up in a simpler time and in a simpler place. I still remember having a black and white television and that a party line was not a hot dating website but rather a shared community phone where you could actually listen in on other people’s lives. We had green carpet in a three bedroom mobile home that was not much bigger than a matchbox.

Christmas was a lot different then as well. We were not ashamed of using the name “Christmas” even though it did not really mean anything spiritual to us. It was the time of year when we were supposed to think about others and do good things and have time with family. There were novelties that were not around at other times of the year like Mandarin oranges, and a big case of pop that Dad brought home from his trip to the city. There was shopping in the next town over, when me and my brother were given $20 each and a list of people to buy things for and we had great fun at the hardware store trying to collaborate our efforts to get a frog on a lillypad that we were certain that Grandma would love. (And she must have because she still had it last year!)

Every year during the holidays we had several family banquets. There was the long trip of seven miles to Great-Grandmother’s house who had fresh baked pies laid out on the counters and preserves that she had made from her own acre of garden that she had tended herself. We would spend hours there as kids playing hide and seek and marvelling at the hours that had gone into every cross-stitched picture and the unique parrots that hung like they were alive on perches in the living room. That tradition ended when I was in my early teens and she passed away at the ripe old age of 97 years young.

My Dad’s parents lived across the road from us while I was growing up and they always had a huge family meal or one was coordinated in our home once a new house was built when I was fourteen. There were easily 25 people and sometimes up to 40 for Christmas dinner. Food was plentiful and would have been very traditional to the North American household.  As a girl I had been commissioned into baking and helping out with the preparations from the time I was about seven years old. Shortbread, gingerbread, poppycock, candy and home baked cream puffs and donuts were a few of things that were offered. Saskatoon, rhubarb, mincemeat, cherry, and apple pies and tarts had been piled up in abundance. Fresh baking was a gift to be shared, treasured and given away and today I still believe that is a good taste to leave behind for friends, associates and business partners.

I marvel now when I hear someone complain of the commercialism of Christmas. I know that it is true for the masses but it has never been true for me. Christmas is still a time for friends and family and laughter. It is time to bake and enjoy eating and playing board games. It is a time for a little extra volunteerism or putting together a huge basket of goodies to take to a family that does not have enough. It is a time to stand behind someone in line and when you see that they are scrambling for change, just step forward and pay it, and then smile and say “Merry Christmas!”

Christmas is about giving and living to the fullest. It was based on a guy who gave everything for all of us and it is still supposed to be an expression of that. I don’t mind it at all to reach down inside myself and give everything. To start singing a carol in a line up and get the whole crowd laughing while they were just standing there bored anyway is a lot of fun. I enjoy leaving a $50 tip for the waitress with a copy of Max Lacado’s Christmas novel and then stand back and watch her face through the window without her realizing that I witnessed that magical moment. We can create the excitement of Christmas or live in the deadness of winter.  It is our choice.

I heard two men in a line-up at the grocery store talking about how the stocks were not “doing it for them anymore.” They said they had no joy in their mistresses, their fancy cars or anything in their lives. Christmas music played in the background and a long line had formed. Some were happy, others were grumbling. I was intrigued. My heart was full of giving and compassion.  I grabbed some carnations in a bouquet by the till and paid my bill. I caught up to them in the parking lot and pinned a flower to each of their lapels, and encouraged them to put a little Christmas in their Season. One of them actually shed a tear.

I encourage you today to reach down inside yourself and remember something good, something wholesome, and something wonderful about the season. If you have no happy memories then by all means go out and create one that is new. Who can you be a blessing to?

Put a little Christmas in your season!

Kerry George

Always Loyal2U 

Is World Take-Over Still Possible?

Recently I met a web designer at a networking meeting who declared that he had a plan for worldwide domination in his field. I loved that!

What made me really giggle is THAT is exactly what I am planning in the social media and email marketing realm. How fun is that?

Why dream small when the world can be your oyster?

There is so much left on the table right now in these markets. So much is completely untouched. We have some crazy brainstorming sessions with maniacal minds to dream up how we can own space that is currently not even being sampled.

Each quarter we try new ideas out and we watch to see what the results are. When we see something that is working we get a team of people involved and try it harder and faster and see if it makes a difference. We try it on our own business Loyal2U first. If it shows promise we add the method to a handful of willing clients as a value-add to their marketing package. If it works well for a few of them then we add it to one of our marketing programs as an ongoing benefit. As a result we have some very unique and powerful marketing plans and it is a whole lot of fun too.

Do you know that there are lots of people doing social media posting? Most though are single individuals with no team effort or plan behind their madness.

Did you know that the average marketing expert was trained prior to social media hitting the scene? Only a few years ago nobody knew what Facebook was. A Yahoo was a delinquent teenager and we still looked in dictionaries and encyclopaedias to figure things out.  Print advertising is changing in effectiveness. Yellow pages are archaic. We now look to people who are under 25 to figure out how to use our basic day-to-day equipment.

Marketing is evolving. You can still go out and find someone to send your message by telegram if you want to but wouldn’t it be more effective to use something a bit more sexy? A Model T and a 2012 Lexus are both similar in that they are both cars, but that is where the similar ends. Which one do you want to drive today?

We are the modern marketing maniacs. Mixed media guerrilla marketing tactics for those who dare to “share” online.

Yep we have a plan for worldwide domination. Do you?

If you do, come get in our Lexus and let’s take it for a test drive, shall we?

Kerry George

Always Loyal2U

403-818-6467

Who Knew?

Ten years ago I wrote my first book. I was excited as a writer to be published and that started a whole series of events that I had never anticipated. I was on television, radio and written up in a few papers. Suddenly I was being asked to come and speak for a variety of events and over the next few years I added other skills to my repertoire, completely by accident. I was not trying to become a writer, I was actually a pastor trying to supplement my income. So I found myself submitting articles for a variety of publications across the continent and trying to get my name known in a handful of key forums online.

The first hardcopy newsletter that I ever wrote was in 2002 and it took me 40 hours of work. I did almost all of it at a friend’s house who coached me through the entire project. His wife was seriously wondering if I was ever going to go home?

When Facebook started I was an early adopter. I immediately saw the opportunity to connect with people of “like” mind long before the button was there and within months built a network of leaders from around the world. For the last three years I have had to turn down 20+ people a day because I would have been over the limitations of what a personal account would hold. I have online friends that have invited me to come to just about every region of the world and many of them I have communicated with on a weekly basis for over five years, and some I have met personally. On my birthday last year I had over 2000 well wishers!

I started writing emails for my church to stay in contact with a growing house church network that I was multiplying across Southern Alberta about 8 years ago. I never even knew was even any good at it. I just knew it worked for keeping people connected and that it helped build faith and loyalty. Three years ago I began writing for a couple of other non-profit organizations and then added a three businesses mostly because I felt sorry for their inadequacies to communicate to their market and to keep their sales teams updated on what they were doing.

One year ago I was in a point of transition and examining my life for something of value that I could use as a skill-set to take a break from the ministry. A trusted mentor emphatically suggested that I should explore email marketing as a possibility as he was sure that I showed some talent in that regard. So I went out and asked a few questions to some local business owners and quickly realized that professional emailing mixed with social media could have some real impact for their businesses. After convincing a handful of clients to give my company a chance I took a few more classes and spiced up their marketing lives with some solid results and we have never looked back.  Our clients are getting larger and larger and the industries that we represent are becoming more and more diversified. It seems that the talent pool that we have hired and partnered with have added additional features that have made us formidable marketers.

All of the combined years of the military, sales and marketing, ministry and relational development have proven to provide a powerful concoction that produces online results. Somewhere in the middle of Facebook friends and a brightly colored email message we found a way to create loyalty and generate new sales leads through LinkedIn.  Who knew?

Did I learn anything playing Farmville? Yes I did. I learned that even professionals play Farmville! Meaning that everyone is doing something online, and therefore that is where the market is.

Who knew 10 years ago that Facebook would come along and change our lives?

Who knew that words like Yahoo, Google, Twitter, and Mashable would be important to our lives today?

Who knew that careers could change so rapidly and that marketing innovation and genius could be found while tweeting and liking?

It is an ever changing world that we live in. Are you in awe like I am in awe?

Hope you are able to keep up...

Kerry George

Always Loyal2U

Starbucks For Christmas

There is nothing better than being in Starbucks during the holiday season. The carols are playing in the background, the buzz of laughter and conversation is going on all around us. It feels warm and fuzzy. It smells delicious. There are the flavours of the season to be sampled and enjoyed. As a lover of decadent and powerfully charged caffeinated beverages Starbucks has become one of my favourite places but particularly at this time of year. Is there any better place on earth?

I was an early adopter of coffee houses. I remember sitting in one of the earliest ones in central Canada almost 20 years ago. When Starbucks opened it’s doors on the West Coast I was there sipping my first vanilla latte and I have been hooked ever since. I even considered buying one at one point. So now it has actually become part of my holiday tradition. This is where I buy gifts. It is where I meet friends. It is where I have business appointments and I discover new and exciting people, and I give out the gift of friendship.

Cheaper coffee places attract a certain clientele. There are a lot of good people in many kinds of places, but Starbucks has a unique crowd. There are the young people coming in and out having grande frappaccinos and families popping in for a hot drink and a snack but there are also the university students plugged into the wall for a connection.

There are also the Starbucks millionaires. They may look like ex-oilmen in their eighties that come out for a coffee only at 3:00 in a downtown location. There are the owners of large companies running their billion dollar affairs from their iphone and their mac computer. There are the investors meeting the inventors and the consultants delivering strategies for their clients. Engineers with teams of engineers, and builders and movers and shakers are tucked into corners with bluetooths in their ears. I have gained new clients because one of them noticed me on my laptop and started asking me questions. Other times I have found myself deep in political debates or even in a social intervention. Seriously, you can meet the MOST interesting people here.

Then there is me. I am a writer primarily. I like the white noise, and although I may enjoy some conversation I really come here to get away from everyone and think. I pull in to avoid rush hour traffic between meeting clients and I pump out material sometimes to the tune of 6 pieces an hour. It is a great place to focus and sometimes to be pleasurably diverted.

I have decided that I like Starbucks. I think I want one for Christmas...

What more could one ask for?

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season from a nice big brown leather chair,

Kerry George

Always Loyal2U

How Bad Do You Want it?

I have met people who have worked smarter than me. Some I respect a tremendous amount because they are absolutely genius at producing a well strategized result. But I don’t know that I have ever met anyone who works harder than I do.  Only a few even come close.

I was reminded of hard work and a disciplined life this week as I was doing job interviews. Some people just want it so easy. Do they honestly think they can just walk into a job interview, demand the big pay, and then produce at a moderate standard? Is life that easy where they come from?

I have had to work for everything I have, and I am not bitter. I actually enjoy it. I have found that when you love what you do, you never work a minute anyway. But I do love to work. I don’t feel bad about it. It is often the first thing I think of when I wake up and sometimes I am too excited to sleep at night and I have to get up to write down creative thoughts or to make plans for the next day or to add a critical piece to the strategy puzzle that I am working on for a client.

When I was a child my father was an extremely hard working man whom I respected deeply and loved more than any other person alive. I did sometimes want more of his attention, but I was pretty secure in the fact that I was “Daddy’s Little Girl.” Even so, he never made it easy on me. When I left home at 16 there were no hand outs. If I called home looking for money, I was told to work harder. It wasn’t very long before I stopped calling.

I joined the army when I was only 17. There were almost 80 people that signed up for Basic and General Military Training and 14 of them were women.  6 months later I was 18 years old and one of four women left out of 30 graduates. Physical fitness was never my thing and the 4:00AM 15km runs just about killed me. The first few weeks I puked more than I ate every day. I did over 2000 push-ups in three days and could take a full punch to the stomach like any man. They made jokes about the women jumping from ditch to ditch with a typewriter tied to their back and they were not far off from the truth. The discipline was gruelling but it reinforced a standard for hard work that has followed me into my adult years and produced success in many things that I have put my hand to.

When one adds the passion to accomplish great things and not live a mediocre existence anything becomes possible.

So I am not sure I understand an employee mentality. In fact, I don’t think I want to understand. What is your value? Is it $10/hour? $20/hr? $50/hr? Is it based on what someone else will pay you? Or is it based on how much they can replace you for?

Yes I am an employer today and I pay out wages based on the worth of the effort, but what I long to see is an individual who has passion and is excited about challenge. I look for a spark in the eye and a quickening in the step that says this person is alive with possibilities. They are willing to work and work hard. They are willing to try new things and fall down and get up again. They are not worried as much about how much they can get per hour but they are more concerned with where they can get to from here. I love to see a sponge who is thirsty for knowledge and fresh for new adventure. They are a thinker and a planner, but they are a mover and a shaker as well.

If you know that person I would hire them in an instant!  Given the right set of circumstances I might even marry them!

How bad do you want success? Is it worth putting your back into it?

Just sayin...

As always,

Kerry George

Loyal2U

In Thankfulness

Today is Thanksgiving and I am reflecting on all of the things that I am thankful about. Like most people I am thankful for family, a home, friends and amazing encounters with God and the people that He continually brings into my life. But today I am also thankful for failure.

Failure is a teacher like no other. It confronts us where we do not want to be confronted.  When a relationship fails we have a choice to blame others, or to consider that the common denominator in all of our failed relationships is “me” and therefore I need to let failure teach me something and examine my ways. When we fail financially we can blame the market, our business partner, God, or some outside circumstance, or we can again use it as an opportunity to examine our methods. Was it really all of those things? Or maybe we did not plan enough, work smart enough, or learn a lesson that needed to be learned. Maybe we need to ask some hard questions and reflect on the answers and make plans accordingly.

Failure is an opportunity to acknowledge our mistake and move forward. If we ignore it and stumble yet again back into the same process we get to repeat that failure. I am reminded of Moses taking the people of Israel around the same mountain again and again for a 40 year period. I have always personally preferred the Jonah 3 Day Method over the Moses Mountain Method. 3 days of absolute hell but you have no choice but to confront your demons and deal with your heart because there is no way out but real humility. It is in that moment of absolute and complete failure that we can actually admit defeat and ask for forgiveness and make real plans to change our ways. We get pretty committed to a different path when the one we are on is completely decimated before us.

I have always asked God to teach me quickly and in many things I have been graced to be a quick learner. There has been one issue though that continually has be looking at the mountain. This week I had a revelation that I need to stop telling God how big the mountain is, and start telling the mountain how BIG my God is! This week I am thankful for the failure because I finally put myself into the position of being swallowed by the whale. So it is a day of repentance and change. One can accept the defeat and death of being eaten by the monster or one can examine their deviated path, and make a course correction while crying out to the Creator who has the ability to add His Super to our natural and create something remarkable.

I am thankful for failure. It is a key to learning quickly if we acknowledge the failure and look deeply within to change the results that are going out. I am also thankful for interesting and wise men and women who have come into my life and shared valuable insights that I could learn from in those critical "belly of the whale" moments.

Rejoice in all things, and again I say rejoice!

May you enjoy your Thanksgiving time with your family, and may you  find thankfulness in all things.

Always Loyal2U,

Kerry George