Random Ramblings

MPI:TN Fundraising Auction
Down to the last hours (ends at 5 p.m. today). Click HERE to find exotic vacations, services, gift baskets and a whole lot more.Proceeds go to Tennessee Chapter of Meeting Professionals International in order to support scholarships (I have one!) and chapter education and activities. Be sure to tell your friends, family, community. Did I mention that I am co-chair of the auction? Yes, I am.

Maurilio Amorim
I am enjoying reading Maruilio's tweets this week from Singapore. He keeps complaining about the heat and humidity there. Wait until he gets back to Nashville.

Martha Stewart's Twitter Tips
I was so disappointed that Martha's tips did not include anything to do with a glue gun and flowers from the garden. Anyway. It's a good thing.

My Mom's Facebook Status
My brother was helping my mother navigate Facebook and thought it might be funny to change her relationship status to "it's complicated" even though my parents have been married 50+ years. I'm sure that everyone who has been married that long will admit that it really is complicated. One of my mom's FB and "real life" friends saw the change in status and came to visit. My dad was outside cleaning up their camper (for us! Thanks, Dad) and the friend thought my mom was making my dad stay in the camper. Her status has now been changed back to "married" but it was much more fun when it was complicated.

Feel free to post whatever is on your mind. I did.

Words of Wisdom from Billy Kirsch

From Billy Kirsch's Newsletter dated June 2010

TAKING MY OWN MEDICINE: When I work with groups through my team building program, making suggestions for strategic planning, creating new ideas, and helping to create action plans, change seems easy. At least, easy for me. That's because I'm guiding and suggesting plans for someone else. It's so easy for me to drive or fly home from a program feeling self-satisfied, knowing I've made a difference for a group needing a catalyst to evolve or just regroup. But after a month of intense strategic planning for my own business, I'm not so smug! This is hard: stopping the day-to-day busy work, making time to reflect, to dig deeper, to absorb way too much information and to synthesize it all into a logical way forward that makes sense intellectually and also feels right. It has to 'feel right' to work, to engage us and to sustain us, as we move forward with new ideas.

What have I learned about this process by slogging through it for my own business?

• It's hard
• It's worthwhile
• It's overwhelming
• It's satisfying

And we need help from the outside to move from our old models, to shake things up. I spent most of my time the past month either on the phone with potential consultants, or sifting through their information and advice online. I had a point person, my brother Jim, who assumed the constant "let-me-bounce-this-off-you" role. It's very important to have some one who has some distance and can help us sift through the often overwhelming input, conflicting suggestions and new knowledge we're acquiring.

I'm renewed, refreshed, and ready to use some of my new found 'empathy' with my next client. I bet that during our group debrief with my next client, I'll have a little more understanding of just how hard it is to commit to change, to stick with an action plan and to share the confusion that often comes with the process. I can't wait!

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I love this!

My husband once worked for Sunbeam Bread and we never had a loaf of bread in our house. We were always running to the grocery store just for bread.

We get caught up in helping others that it is hard to take the time to focus our energy on ourselves.

That's it! I'm taking time later this week to work on my company and myself. Sometimes it is just that "forest and the trees" thing.

Thanks for the inspiration, Billy.