Recently, someone asked a question about Celebrity Auctions, and what immediately came to mind was how much money could I get for auctioning off a celebrity?
If it is the right celebrity, probably a lot !!
But seriously folks….
Celebrities are a great way to bring out the crowd. Having a celebrity at your event pumps up the audience and the bottom line.
Celebrities come with and from a variety of interests. Depending on your organization, a sports figure might be a better ask than a Hollywood movie star or a television actor. And don’t leave out the producers and the writers. They, too, are “celebrities” who can draw a crowd.
Your favorite politician, television news anchor and the CEO of a local or major corporation all go on the “celebrity” list. Each brings something special to the table.
Any of them might become your emcee or auctioneer for the evening. And being able to feature an item belonging to or brought by the celebrity to be auctioned is also a draw. Sometimes, celebrities can obtain (signed) items from their favorite artist or their favorite novelist. They could bring a favorite children’s book, and if they have a favorite designer, you might be able to land a one-of-a-kind garment.
Frequently you can auction lunch with the celebrity and/or a tour of his/her movie or television show and meet the rest of the cast. We have done this and the winner has ended up having lunch with the celebrity and the show’s cast and crew. Some celebrities have also provided signed scripts for auction.
Another area to look into is art, whether it is a signed limited edition poster or an original oil painting by a prominent artist in your community (or a famous person who is not known as an artist), art does well at auctions.
You might consider a book nook for autographed volumes; an art corner; a wine bar stocked from a local vineyard; a jewelry display, etc. You can go broad or narrow depending on how good your contacts are in the different areas of interest.
Think creatively. Hold nothing back and you may find the right combination of celebrity and event.
The bottom line, however, to ensuring a successful event, is to have an audience that will spend the money. And, if/when the price starts to zoom up for an item, you need an audience that, in the spirit of the evening, will keep the bidding going.
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Have a comment or a question about creating or expanding your special event? Email me at Info@NatalieShear.com. With over 30 years in conference and event planning, we can help you turn your vision into reality.
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Have you seen Natalie’s ebook on Special Events ??
My perspective of spirituality in the workplace has changed over the years. I used to view it solely as integrating my spirituality at the workplace. Now more than ever, I look at is as putting my spirituality at work, wherever I’m working, with whoever I’m working with, doing whatever kind of work. This new perspective has widen my reach and broadened my perspective for how I approach this topic.
While I’ve been co-writing for a year with this blog, it’s fun for me to think about how I would describe the case study for my spirituality at work.
Divinely Inspired
I remember almost 10 years ago when I first emerged as wanting to have a business focusing on spirituality in the workplace (which I promoted at the time as spirit in work/life), it was a cutting edge thing to do and very misunderstood topic. One networking meeting I attended a woman blatantly accused me in front of all the attendees of wanting to promote my religious beliefs after just hearing me say the word “spirit”. After the session, another woman gently shared her apologies for how I was treated and introduced me to the word inspiration. She explained how it’s rooted in spirit, which might be a better word to help me to promote what I’m doing more easily for people to understand. So for the past 10 years my sole purpose has been to inspire others. I’ve helped to create inspired workplaces, hosted inspired women’s retreats, and wrote a couple of inspirational, illustrated books.
Prayer
Over the years my prayer life has tremendously increased. The power of praying is an integral part of how I practice my spirituality. Sometimes I say memorized prayers or I memorize other prayers I would like to learn. Others times I’ll just dialogue in a conversation with God regarding my prayers or prayers for other people. A couple of examples of how I’ve put my prayers to work is that I’ll actually take time at the moment someone is requesting a prayer to actually pray. I used to say “I’ll pray for you” and I’m not sure if I ever followed up on that request. Before my training classes or presentations, I’ll pray for the group that I’m working with. I’ll ask God to speak through me in order to best serve the group I’m connecting with. I’ve been doing this for the past couple of years and it has helped me connect more deeply with the audiences I’m blessed to work with. Before I write, I’ll say a prayer for divine inspiration and for the words to flow out of me that will best help others. When I’m done writing, I say a prayer as I send it off that those who need to read it will find it.
Support Groups
We are not meant to experience life alone. The power of having a like-minded group in which you can share your faith with has been something that I have sought and created. After college I didn’t want to lose the spiritual path that I had been on, so I worked with a couple of other friends to form a women’s spirituality group. We named our group WINGS (Women In Nourishing Groups for the Soul). This spiritual friendship that we’ve formed has allowed the three of us to grow in tremendous ways that we all attribute to the work we’ve done through WINGS. Another group that I help co-found is a small group marriage ministry at our church called Couples in Christ. This allows couples to meet together in a small group to focus on their faith and marriage. This ministry has helped my husband and I grow more deeply in our lives together as well as the other 20+ couples involved int he ministry. I’m also part of a women’s Bible study at our church. We have a small group that we share intimately with and I’ve learned so much about my religion as being part of this group.
Gratitude
If you’ve read any of my posts before, you know that gratitude is a way of life for me. Giving gratitude and practicing gratitude is a wonderful example of how I’ve put my spirituality to work. Whenever I connect with someone, whether it’s a stranger or one of my closest friends, I’m always thinking about how I can show my gratitude for them. Learning to be grateful and feeling grateful is what actually brings more things in our lives to be grateful about. For example, I was listening to a christian radio station of a speaker that I like. I was giving gratitude for his talk and all that I learned in the 15 of listening to him. He then announced that he was having a free MP3 event of all of this presentations. So I went to the site and not only was I able to download for free the series I was listening to, but many other great presentations. Because I was grateful for the little, I was given a lot to be grateful for. Again, for more on what I believe about gratitude, you can go to Project GratOtude.
Reading
I read a ton! Most of my books have a spiritual focus. I start out the morning with a daily devotional and continue to read whenever I can throughout the day. All the support groups that I’m a part of have a book that we study with the intent of growing my spirituality. I’ve noticed that my spirituality philosophy is shaped by the authors that I read. I tend to connect with some concepts that are introducing, try them out and eventually have the opportunity to teach it.
Teaching It
The best way to really learn and internalize something is to teach it. I’m so grateful that formally through my writing, speaking and training business I’m able to do that. Informally, I share with friends what I’m learning which is another way of teaching. My three sons (and husband) are also great students for me. One way I’m teaching them about their spirituality is by doing a devotional and gratitude journal before they go to school in the mornings. Thank you for the opportunity in this blog to teach what I’m learning regarding spirituality at work.
Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.
As it stands today, crisis management is very much entwined with social media. Whether you like it or not, when trouble hits you’ve got to quickly meet your stakeholders in the places they frequent in order to maintain control of your story, and that means being ready. In an article for business2community.com, David Vap provided some solid tips for getting your organization in position to handle social crises:
Understand your organization. Review external communication processes, social capabilities, and corporate culture. This is where we recommend scenario planning. Key questions could include: how would we respond if a vocal customer complaint suddenly went viral? How would we respond to a brandjacking attack?
Create a new social mindset in your organization. The social shift calls for a mindset characterized by transparency, accountability, employee empowerment, and planned spontaneity. Technology is certainly a crucial component of dealing with crisis communication, but preparing processes and practices must come first.
Know your consumers. Listen to conversations unfolding on the social web about your brand, and respond/employ proactive social support. Also identify your customer advocates on the social web – they will be invaluable in the event of a crisis.
Form a social crisis team. A successful social strategy must cross the boundaries of department and hierarchy because consumers expect a seamless experience. Build a cross-functional team, including a social media manager, a product owner, and at least one executive sponsor. Draw up a social team charter to clarify roles and responsibilities and create an internal collaboration space for this team.
Roll out a social crisis communications plan. Develop a playbook with guidelines for the social crisis team. Define an escalation process for potential PR issues. Build feedback into every step so you can adapt. Your plan needs to think through three areas – process and culture (what / who needs to change), technologies and tools (what to use to get there), and key metrics (what to track).
I especially like this list because of step two, “create a new social mindset in your organization.” Far too many businesses create social media accounts and install fancy managing programs but neglect proper training and education, not only stifling possible gains but also creating the risk of improper use, which raises the chance of crisis even further.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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I hope to get a least a smile from my film metaphors, but what do you expect from an actor turned trainer? When we write it is said we should always write what we know. And, that is what I have tried to do here. I hope you find my take interesting or entertaining (hopefully both), but, most of all, in caveman speak, that I bring food for the cave. Food for thought, nourishment for the soul, vitamins for energy, etc.
Sometimes a film title offers the best metaphors for life.
I find training and development to be a fascinating field although my approach may sometimes deviate a bit to the employee or trainee side of things rather than the trainer, training developer, or training manager. These days, at a time when we really need to see the people in the jobs perform their best, and knowing the uncertainty of the economy, trainers need to do what seems impossible and see that it gets done.
And we have to do it with fewer resources than we used to have, meaning more in-house training, less outsourcing–if at all, and do more than just train. We need to give hope, motivate and or train. We need to see the “good, the bad, and the ugly” of training, and make any training the “affair to remember” of my last article. Understand when I say the “ugly” of training, I only mean the process our trainees may find utterly boring and repulsive. We can’t help that on the surface so much–the fact it exists or we must train on certain subjects that in themselves are boring and perceived by some as a waste of time. That subject training may be mandated by law.
But we can try to make the most of it by reaching out to those who find it repugnant to see value in it–like it or not–out of necessity. That means dealing with individuals to whom the subject or the process seems entirely unnecessary. This means acknowledging at a minimum there is more to people than their job. We can’t ignore their job and their place in the company; however, we can try to incorporate it within their reality of survival–their world being more than company.
A life ruined by being all about the job. And, many lives are affected by it.
Some see their jobs only as a means to survive; however, I think most of us enjoy our jobs–or at least try to make the best of them. Sometimes those jobs become us and who we are–our very identity. Remember, Death of a Salesman, a perfect tragedy of a life ruined by becoming too much of one thing and forgetting the rest of his identity is important, too. This has been said often by teachers and trainers, and you’ve said it yourself, we shouldn’t train subjects but people. Ironic isn’t that in some countries subjects and people can be the same thing. We no longer have a monarchy ruling this country so people aren’t subjects. While people learn subjects, they really have to be connected or should be, dare I say it, to Maslov’s Hierarchy of Needs. We should identify people as being more than the job. The subjects we train or teach are a part of the whole–not the whole.
People need to take care of personal stuff in the middle of training. That’s what breaks are for.
When I wrote What Would A Caveman DO: How We Know What We Do About Training, I was writing about a simplified time, when training was a matter of survival, when people needed and wanted to learn more to do their jobs more efficiently. Doing their jobs more efficiently put more food on the table, made a better shelter, or otherwise helped them survive and thrive.
We have to have a similar take on training even today. If we can’t directly help someone survive this economy, we can at least acknowledge trainees as people who have the same worries as the rest of us, and make it positive. The off-hand remark a trainer may make about having to take a break because it’s in the curriculum or labor union rules, “and we have much more to cover” doesn’t help to promote the feeling we are all in this together.
This is not the time to joke about real lives. People need a break to breathe, to stretch their legs, and to use the bathroom, but also to put things in perspective, to call home and check on the sick kid, to connect with the wife to see if she needs anything–personal stuff. Those things that make them people–human beings.
I’m not saying we aren’t doing these things. Most of us probably are, but I am saying they are still important to do. Everyone wins. To make people a part of the equation means we are the “good;” to not do so, the “bad;” and we know the “ugly” training exists no matter what. Dealing with it positively makes the experience worthwhile for all–even the trainers. No one should feel they are not being served by training. Know that we are all happier doing our job when it is more pleasant. When people appreciate us, we like it. It increases our self esteem.
As we ride off into the sunset, training for survival goes on.
As trainers, we have the best jobs in the world because we have to be so multifaceted as human beings; the trick is in using these facets together in training others. We trainers must be psychologists, teachers, counselors, trainers, philosophers, and oftentimes, subject-matter-experts as well. It wouldn’t hurt us to do our best to be people experts. In fact, it wouldn’t hurt at all. It might even do a lot of good. I hope you agree.
This has been my take on the “good, the bad, and the ugly” of training. I hope I brought food to the cave and something to think about. I look forward to hearing from you–either here in comment form, or via e-mail. Or, if you like, check out my website. I’m always open to questions and suggestions of topics. If I don’t have a good answer your question or can adequately write about your suggestion in a short article, I’ll try to find someone who feels they can. Maybe that’s you. Let me know. I want to know what you think.
By the way, my new eBook is available through most major distributors and in most formats. The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development is a look at training through the eyes of others, taking the notion to another more basic level to explore ways we can simplify what we do. We spend so much time “branding” ourselves so we have a different approach to sell. Maybe what we have has complicated the picture for the very people we want to sell to. I have written a book to help us re-think what we do and ask some questions of why. Who is to say, this won’t work for your brand of training; it may even help.
The following list was graciously contributed by Marc Bonnemains, and is from a LinkedIn discussion about project management.
The following items are referred to as frameworks and models. Many people distinguish between the two, and might explain that a framework is a structure within which an activity occurs, but a model also describes the functioning relationship between the activities within that structure. The following items are not individually classified as a framework or model.
Bad move sends Food Network star scrambling for crisis management
The Make-A-Wish Foundation is heralded as a fine organization, and celebrities and athletes are more than happy to spend some time making dreams come true. Well, most of them are. Apparently Ina Garten, star of the Food Network’s “Barefoot Contessa” doesn’t have much care for the wishes of a dying child or her own reputation, because she has twice denied the request of one boy and now the press has gotten ahold of the story. A quote, from PR Daily:
The boy, whose name is Enzo, suffers with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and he wanted to meet the celebrity chef after watching her while he was sick in bed. But a rep for Garten said, “As much as [Garten] would like to, it’s absolutely impossible for her to grant every request she receives.”
Really? She has that many request from sick 6-year-olds?
The public outrage toward Garten was so intense—after Enzo’s mom wrote about in the family’s blog—that she finally relented, saying through a spokesperson:
“Ina became aware of Enzo’s story this weekend and will be calling him today. She looks forward to inviting him to spend some time with her at the Food Network studios.”
Regardless of her eventual acquiescence, no amount of backpedaling will remove the stain that the initial denial has put on Garten’s reputation. The only guaranteed way to improve her image now is to publicly display her willingness to help others through unforced volunteer or charity work.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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Understanding your target market will give you the information needed for an effective promotional plan.
Your target market needs and buyer behavior are the basis for the plan. The market needs dictate your positioning and possible competitive advantage while buyer behavior will determine who you need to sell to and where you need to have a presence.
Who is your target market? So, it is important, first, to know who your target market is. The target market needs to be narrow enough that they generally behave similarly. However, it cannot be so narrow that you do not have enough potential customers. Marketing, as always, begins with the target market.
What are your target market needs? The target market needs will determine the strengths you need, and the competitive advantage you select. Try to understand which needs are more important, and whether there are any needs that have not been met – that will be a good source of competitive advantage.
The target market buyer behavior will dictate your promotional plan.
What qualities does your market look for in a supplier? You need to understand the qualities your market is looking for in a supplier. Some of these might be confidence, knowledge, skills, quality (which would need to be defined), and more. Do they want a hard sell or a soft sell? This will determine your positioning in the marketplace. For example, if your market is looking for a soft sell, and you give them a hard sell on your website, it won’t work.
Who makes the buying decision? The key person to sell to is the person who makes the buying decision. So, understanding who makes the decision is key. However, sometimes it is a group decision. There can be many stakeholders in the product or service that is used, and they generally have a say, and an opionin.
Even if there is a sole decision-maker, ofter there are influencers ie someone the decision-maker will ask for input prior to making a decision.
You will want to scope out who the decision-maker is, who the stakeholders are, as well as the influencers. When selling, then, you will want pay attention to the interests of each of these people.
Where does your target market hang out? You will want to know what your target market reads, the websites they look at, the associations they belong to. This gives you the information on where to place your ads, your articles and the associations to join. It also gives you the information on how much to pay for the ads or associations. If the decision-makers don’t read the publication or get involved in the association, just how much do you want to pay?
Of course, sometimes you find out whether your market is there through trial and error. However, market research can go a long way towards finding out, as well as the questions you ask on sales calls, or in any interaction with your customers.
Stay tuned: the next blog will expand on getting the information you need on your target market.
As always, feel free to let me know any topics you would like me to cover.
We’ve all heard the saying “knowledge is power.” What we often forget to do is to stop and ask our customers and even ourselves if we are focusing on the right issues.
WHAT is important to your customers? Is it the speed of service or response? Is it quality of service or response? Is it ease of access or use of your site?
Tools for listening to your customers
Online Surveys (Zoomerang, Survey Monkey)
Customer Call Outs (call x% of last month’s customers)
Post Engagement Surveys By Mail and Email
Post Transaction Questions
To retain loyal customers, businesses must focus on providing excellent customer service. We have learned that delivering quality solutions and products doesn’t take the place of delivering quality service. Take a good look at your transaction processes. Is it a pleasure to do business with your organization? A great customer service team can help to retain customers, reduce churn, and lower customer acquisition costs.
It is essential to model your customer transactions after successful experiences. Take some time to learn what is important to your customers. Talk to your regular customers to find out why they come back. Model your customer transactions after these successes. By understanding the customer journey, you can identify pain points, improve the customer experience, and increase customer satisfaction. Replicate the good processes!
Proactive customer service can also play a significant role in building loyalty. Use marketing or sales campaigns to show your current customers that you value their business and are committed to providing good customer service. By doing so, you can create a positive impression that will keep your customers coming back. A great customer service team can help your business to stand out from the competition, increase customer loyalty, and reduce customer acquisition costs.
To provide great customer service, you need to understand your customers. Customer data can provide valuable insights into their preferences, needs, and behaviors. You can use this data to personalize your interactions with them, anticipate their needs, and provide relevant recommendations. This can lead to higher customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.
In summary, providing excellent customer service is crucial to building and retaining loyal customers. By focusing on what matters most to your customers and modeling successful processes, you can improve customer retention and drive repeat business.”
Careers are like life, they don’t stand still. They progress from one stage to another.
Here are career stages that you are going through, have been through, or hope to go through. Pay attention to the potential roadblocks – they can make or break your career advancement.
Stage I – Apprenticeship: Learning the Ropes
You are fresh, most likely young or starting over in a new career. You are hungry for knowledge and seek out guidance from others. At first you are most likely part of a team with specific tasks. You may be closely supervised until your boss has confidence in your abilities. Your “job” is not only to do the work assigned but also to learn about the culture, the company, and the colleagues you work with.
Potential career roadblock: Settling into your current role. As you develop your capabilities, you may become too comfortable. You’re no longer the new kid on the block. You know your way around. This is the most important time to grow in your career. Ask for more assignments that will expand your expertise and experience. Keep moving ahead.
Stage II – Independent Contributor: Establishing a Reputation
Now you are a doer. You are taking on more responsibility and developing technical depth in assignments. You re also given more autonomy – making decisions that you boss made earlier in your career. You may be part of a committee that makes recommendations on the best software or ways to increase customer satisfaction. This is an opportunity to stand out and shine.
Potential career roadblock: Indecision about your next career move. Most of us in this stage could steer our careers in several directions. If you are not sure where you want to end up, you may never move toward the goal. So assess if you want to expand your expertise with more challenging assignments or start leading projects or teams in order to develop your managerial abilities. See Generalist vs Specialist.
Stage III – Leader: Developing and Managing Others
You have the title of supervisor, manager or director. As you progress in this position, you have staff under you. It could be 5 people or even 50. You now get things done and get results through others. You are assigning tasks, managing their work efforts and coaching them to improve or enhance their performance. It may be difficult for you not to be so hands-on since your hands-on skills are what got you here.
Potential career roadblock: Not focusing on your interpersonal skills. Management is dealing with all kinds and levels of people –subordinates, peers, boss or bosses, other departments or business units, even other companies and the list goes on. It’s important to have well developed communication, negotiation, team building skills. If you don’t, your career growth will be in jeopardy.
Stage IV – Executive: Exercising Power
You have significant organization responsibility. Your focus is not on day to day operations but on strategy – the future of the organization. Your role is to be proactive – to anticipate change, plan for it, initiative it and lead the organization as it goes through it. That requires dealing more with the external environment and making tough, hard decisions.
Potential career roadblock: Not using the real influence that you have. By being indecisive and not pushing strategy forward, you may appear wavering or lackluster. People look to their senior leaders for vision, guidance and encouragement especially in these very changing times.
Career Success Tip:
By knowing what career stage you are in, you can focus on the key tasks and avoid the key roadblocks so that you are most effective. Also by knowing the next career stage, you can anticipate and prepare for your next position. In that way you will be proactive, rather than reactive, in your career management.
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