Life Lessons from Fundraising

Scent Circle Fundraising, made easy for your club or organization

In many ways, fundraising is the life blood of many organizations.  Be it raising money for a band trip for the big parade; a week long summer camp; supplies for the classroom or new team uniforms.  The list of needs goes on forever.  I don't need to write about why groups, clubs, and organizations from the young and old need to raise money.  What I think is most important are the life lessons that can be learned, especially by kids, that really participate in fund raising.  I think we forget that or don't take it seriously.

Having been involved with many organizations that have hosted fundraising events, I feel the trend is to get to the bottom line of raising the needed money, but I think we are missing out on the educational life lessons that could be the bigger part of participating.  One group I belonged to, a booster club for a high school athletic team, really missed the boat.  A vast majority of the parents just wanted to "write a check" and couldn't be bothered with fundraising.  What a missed opportunity to teach values to our kids.  The value of working to get what you want.  The value of record keeping lessons, managing money, customer service and saying thank you.  Let's look at a few lessons to be learned.

I am just as guilty as many parents who want their kids to have it all....  to have it better than we had it...  to take care of them and give them our all.  Some of us have more all than others.  We might be teaching our kids to expect that they will be given all we can for nothing in return...  are we responsible for this society of entitlement?  Requiring the members to actually do some of the work (be it selling or taking orders), teaches that we should work for the things we want.  You want to go with the band on the trip or for your team to get new uniforms?  Mom or dad might foor part of the bill, but by going door to door or standing in front of the local grocery store and solicit sales, if taught how to do it right, teaches earning what we get.  Participants can learn customer service skills....  saying please and thank you.  They learn that everyone might not be interested and will say no and how to act properly when they get those no's.  They are taught money management and how to be accountable for the monies they collect and turn into the organizers.  A little extra money counting skills can help prepare them for a real job in the future.

I don't have time, how much should I just write a check out for. Some can do that, others can't, none should.  I have heard so many parents say that....ugh!  Make the time.  Teach the value of working for what you get and not to expect something for nothing....  entitlement is not a fundamental right for which this country was built.

Sometimes there are personal rewards or prizes participants receive for being top sellers.  Not everyone should receive a reward for participating.  Teach that in contest and games, there are often winners and losers.  Teach respect and sportsmanship, graceful winning and being happy for those that exceeded expectations.

How Perfect Do You Have To Be?

One great thing about being a part of the Scentsy Family is the unending support you can find from the family. Whether you just need words of encouragement, a pat on the back for something amazing you just did or a hug, you can find it in the family. I found an opportunity to pay it forward thought that this might be a story that others could benefit from as well. I sure know there have been times I could have stepped back and realized that being much less than perfect is not only acceptable, but can be satisfying beyond your wildest dreams.

I read a post on Facebook from a gal who had just joined Scentsy, but it could have been any business opportunity and was already a little down after only 3 days in. She had not made a sale yet and had "only" booked 2 catalog parties for this month. I actually smirked a bit, "only" booked 2 parties in her first 3 days. Little did she know that she was probably one of a who who ever booked 2 parties in 3 days... most would do anything to book 2 parties in the next 3 days.

I replied to her post with an abbreviated version of this story. I see you are from a different part of the country, I am in New England. As we approach baseballs All-Star break and I don't know if you are a baseball fan or not, but bear with me. Here in New England, Boston to be exact, Big Papi, David Ortiz, is a Red Sox slugger.... Ortiz is a nine-time All-Star, a three-time World Series champion and he holds the Red Sox single-season record for home runs with 54, set during the 2006 season. Ortiz has hit 481 career home runs, which ranks 29th on the MLB all-time home run list. He is the all-time leader in MLB history for home runs (429), runs batted in (RBIs) (1,383) and hits (1,954) by a DH. Besides all that, he is a really nice guy. The Red Sox have paid David over 30 million for the last 2 seasons. 30 million because he hits lots of home runs.... by the way, he runs pretty slow.Here the moral to the story... he is paid to hit home runs. EVERY time he gets up to bat, he wants to and wants to hit a home run, the Red Sox want him to hit a home run, the fans expect him to hit a home run. He doesn't. In fact, he gets put out about 70% of the time he gets up to bat. Not only does he fail to hit a home run, he makes an out!  He fails at doing what people expect 70% of the time - he doesn't hit a home run!

You want everyone you talk to to but a product from you, you want them to join you in this opportunity.  You expect them to, but they don't.  In fact, like Big Papi, you strike out most of the time too.  They don't always buy, the don't want to join (yet).  In fact, you probably strike out more than 70% of the time... maybe even 90%.  But wait....

The Red Sox paid him 30 million over the last 2 years to do that!  In fact, they paid him that because he is one of the best at what he does.  You don't need to hit a home run every time, you just have to keep getting up to bat, practicing, learning and trying harder...  like Big Papi, and you too can become a Super Star (pun intended).

In your business, you don't need to make a sale, book a party, or sponsor every person you talk to.... but you do need to keep talking, keep learning, keep getting better.  So how do you do all that...  you listen, you read, you do what the other successful people are doing.  You don't listen to those that tell you that you can't...  what they are really saying is THEY can't and they don't want you too either.  It has been said before, when you are new, just learning....  you will make mistakes, you will strike out more.  That's okay, learn that now so it doesn't surprise you when it happens.  Make up for inexperience, but working harder, listening more and talk to everyone.

For what it's worth from this Scentsy guy from New England... you are rockin it just by being in it! You are at the right place, at the right time.  Go get em!

The Side of a Coffee Tale I Never Knew Existed

Dictionary

AHA Moment

1. It's a moment of clarity, a defining moment where you gain real wisdom - wisdom you can use to change your life. Whether big or small, funny or sad, they can be surprising and inspiring. Each one is unique, deeply personal, and we think, worth sharing.

Obviously not American

I just had an eye opening, aha moment.  It all started so innocently and has come to shed huge light on my apparent lack of knowledge.  There has been a lot of "Canada" going on recently in my life.  First, my favorite "sister-in-law living in Canada" came down to the states with her family last week where we spent the better part of a day together, debating Canadian vs States, taxes, and beaver tail.  My son had been visiting his girl friend in Cornwall, Ontario, where she is from and where they went to hockey school and then he is working a hockey program in Ottawa for the week...  Canada this, Canada that is all I have been hearing eh.  Then someone posted a picture of a coffee cup mocking the "hot coffee" law suit in our sue happy America from an apparent Canadian coffee shop.

I posted the cup picture to Facebook with a comment mocking the American way of suing anyone and everyone for anything and everything...  this cup mocks what has been referred to and joked about laughable law suit about a lady that sued McDonald's because their coffee was too hot and it burned her when "she" dumped it in her lap...  and won over 2 million dollars!

Enter my friend from South Carolina, Kerin (owner and founder of "I'm a mother of an Angel found at https://www.facebook.com/iamamothertoanangel).  She asked if I had Netflix, which I did, and suggested I watch a movie named "Hot Coffee".  I checked it out and almost instantly the aha moment struck.

It's a movie about frivolous lawsuits, greed, corporate America, politics and government.  Wow.  Shed a whole new light as my eyes were opened to some things I had previously assumed....  and the saying is right when you assume something, except this time I was the "u" and "me" in my assumptions.  I urge each and every one of you to watch the movie if you have Netflix or get it on DVD, or come to my house and watch it.  It's worth the hour twenty minutes or so.  I'll bet your perspective on several things will change and likely cause you to question and thing or two.  I hope it does.

Haven't given you enough inspiration?  Here is one of Stella's burn pictures, others are too graphic for here:

Much of the documentary is about tort reform, which, in some cases, I can understand, others, I can not.  Unfortunately, it seems that the only one that really gets hurt in many of these cases is the injured person... win or lose.  When there are cases of people really trying to abuse the system and "cash in", I have no problem finding against them.  It's all about accountability.  The McDonald's case punitive damages were not even about the woman being burned...  all she ever asked for was coverage above what her insurance paid (they offered her $800 against over $10,000 in medical expenses) and that they would check the coffee pot settings.  Apparently McDonald's was aware of over 700 burn complains and ignored them all.

The McDonald's suit is just a small part.  Pour a cup of coffee and watch "Hot Coffee".

Movie trailer

http://www.hotcoffeethemovie.com/Default.asp

Irrational change is.... well, irrational

an Abraham Lincoln misquote, but meaningful nevertheless

Although this is most likely a misquote by Lincoln, I think there is a good argument that this is what he meant, after all, what he really said is difficult to read and comprehend at first read.  I think the quote really is: "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide."

Change is one thing, stupid irrational snap judgements are not what this country needs.  It's time to reclaim our country and stop the wacko irrational actions of many.  Bring back logic and being reasonable as a common mindset.  Political correctness should not replace rational decisions.

Photo Search Extraordinaire

A few days ago I made a post to my Facebook friends about an article that appeared in Fortune magazine about facial recognition.  Here's what I wrote:

"Sort of mind blowing... A June 23rd article in Fortune Magazine about facial recognition and work Facebook is doing says: "The research took 40,000 public photos from the social network, some of which showed people with their faces fully visible to the camera and others with their faces partially or fully hidden. After running them through the recognition filter, LeCun said the system could determine a user’s identity with 83% accuracy. Using its existing algorithms, Facebook has said that it can recognize you with 98% accuracy—in fact, its software can identify you in one picture out of 800 million in less than 5 seconds". The last sentence is wow... not only is big brother watching you... The likes of Facebook are too... No pun intended".

Tonight, while exploring the new Google Photo's app (available on your computer or for your smartphone), I discovered what I think is a spin off of that facial recognition technology.  Let's go back a bit to set this up right.  In this digital age, we all have photo's everywhere...  computer, smartphones, external storage drives and who knows where ever else.  Ever try to find that one picture you know you have "somewhere"?  I have a 64G iPhone...  and I ran out of storage mainly because I have 1000's and 1000's of pictures stored on it.  Honestly, it can be a pain looking for one that I know is there.

Enter Google Photos.  I downloaded the app...  Sync'd my pictures from my smartphone...  added the app on my computer and sync'd those picture and also my iPad.  It is really pretty amazing how I can now launch the Google Photos app and I have all pictures from all 3 sources...  viewable from any device.  That part is pretty cool and handy.  Now I have to go find all thos pictures on off line storage and add them, maybe.

The I started playing with the Google Photo search feature.  Can you imagine going through tens of thousands of pictures and labeling them just so you can find them?  How about sorting and putting the into folders yada, yada, yada.  What a pain.  It might not be necessary anymore.  In the app, I decided to search for a picture of a car I took while at a Scentsy Reunion...  didn't remember which one or where it was.  In the search bar, I typed "car" and instantly, there were all my pictures of cars with a smattering of motorcycles and other motor vehicles, including the picture I was looking for.

Very cool and I don't even know what I'm doing.  You can type in about anything you want.  Don't know what you want? The app will even make suggestions.  A series of thumbnails of people or topics are presented.  All you need to do is click on one of those pictures and your find all the pictures of that person or topic.  I searched for "snow" and guess what....  tons of winter scenes. Getting ingenious now, I went wild and searched for "car + snow" and as you might guess...  cars in winter scenes.  Pretty cool. Maybe.

If I understand it correctly, you can save an unlimited number of photos in the new app.  This storage is seperate and different from the limits within Google Drive.  Why?  I don't know yet.  But, Google is giving everyone the opportunity to upload as many photos as they want, for free.  Google them has the ability to scan them and find who know what.  It's likely all money based and will somehow be used to their advantage and financial gain...  don't know how, why or when...  but not only do we have the Big Brother (like the NSA), now we have Google.  Ahh, free enterprise.

Here's the app:  https://www.google.com/photos/about/
Here's the help: https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6128838?hl=en
Here's the Community: https://plus.google.com/communities/115899483237483386886

Where's My Dr. Phil?

One thing nice about being retired is that I can have the TV on in my office while I'm doing whatever it is I do, being retired and all.  It seems the folks in television land have no imagination when it comes to scheduling because it seems episodes of some shows are one right after another, sometimes seemingly all day long.

Dr. Phil is has become one of my favorites lately.  Maybe it's just because I've been paying attention lately too.  Nevertheless, I want my own Dr. Phil.  He has resources...  he finds help for those needing help... despite saying it like it is, he also has some compassion except for those that are just outright deserving of what ever it is they are going though.  I hope that isn't my case...  I may have played an important part or made the bad decisions that were made to get in some of the mess...  but never, ever intentionally or knowingly.  I just want the help and resources, my own Dr. Phil without having to go on TV and be humiliated but announcing my faults and shortcomings for the entertainment of the masses.

How much of the show is real?  I've often wondered how much is just for the entertainment value.  It's one of the things I have not researched to find out.  So Dr Phil, if you have some time and want to help without me having to hang my dirty laundry in public, I'm ready.  Real or not, I am trying to learn from the show... I hope that's a good thing.

Challenged... Challenge Accepted

Be forewarned, you are about to see more of me than you likely ever wanted to see...  if you continue, don't be judgemental.  Ever felt like you were just going nowhere but down hill?  Gosh that is a horrible feeling, sometimes a feeling of being lost...  hopeless... bottom of the barrel.  I know, been there, done that.  How to get out is the million dollar question.  I think it starts with attitude, but it takes a whole lot more than just attitude.  Attitude is a critical part, but, like all other successful things, it takes action.

Stuck in a rut...  up to your eye balls in alligators...  however you say it...  nothing will happen without action.  Easier said than done.  Okay, enough with all the justifications, (invalid) reasoning and other hogwash...  let's get to the action.

It often isn't who, how or what sparks the action...  it only matters that action starts.  This story centers around my amazing nephew Kevin.  I don't get to see him often...  the last time was at my son's wedding last year.  Honestly, I was a little surprised.  Kevin's hair was longer than I had ever seen it, he had packed on a few pounds (nothing compared to those I packed on) and we probably almost didn't recognize each other.  He was still the same amazing guy I always remembered.  Most recently, he posted a picture on Facebook of his transformation in progress.  Totally impressive.  He even looked like the Kevin of old only after 45 days on what ever he was doing.  Visalus - what ever that is.

So we talked.  The "hook" was that he described it to me as a challenge.  I don't understand the details, but Kevin has not been judgemental, has proven he can do it and is the inspiration for me to give it a shot.  The 90 day Challenge is suppose to be a complete healthy lifestyle platform for everybody and every body. With Kevin and his friend Jody's help and support, maybe I can finally lose that "10%" my doctor has been talking about for a long time.   It is suppose to be FUN! So here it is, my start (my package is suppose to arrive later today, June 18th - Day 1.  I need to completely transforming myself, in body, mind and spirit.  Kevin, I accept the challenge.

One last note.  This post is public, but not promoted.  I'd rather push myself to make some changes that others can see, since there are so many times things just don't work out...  I really want this one to work out.  As I learn more about the 90 Day Challenge, I will be posting more.  Until then, watch my results.  If I succeed, or if you want to help cheering me on and do this with me, let me know...  check out these links:

The Challenge
http://dangreeley.bodybyvi.com