From the Desk 9/3/2008

The morning of the marketing meeting had finally arrived. I was overjoyed, thrilled, and pumped about the possibilities of the day. Then I opened my eyes and realized how tired I was from the concert last night and that my ears were still a little fuzzy from the volume of the show. I got to work and promptly filled the largest mug I could find with coffee, cream and sugar in an effort to renew the excitement I had felt about this meeting for the past two weeks. I printed a few things and checked with Mike on setting up the projector and having Internet access in the meeting room. Aimee arrived at 9:00 and we arranged the tables and set up the projector screen. We also made even more rolls of tape as I had seen Vickie's stack of cards and it dwarfed my stack of 30. I got all my visual aids in order and talked briefly with Chris and Vickie concerning one thing that needed to be brought up at the meeting by someone other than me. Everyone filed into the room and we began shortly after 10:00am. We explained how we would run this storyboard meeting. We would read the cards, tape them on the boards under the correct heading and then once we got all the cards up break down any categories too large to tackle as is into smaller categories. It took about 45 minutes just to read the cards. We began with 7 categories (1st Quarter, 2nd Quarter, 3rd Quarter, 4th Quarter, Misc., Retail, Warehouse, and Website). We ended up with 14 categories after each of us took a section and re-defined some of the cards. It was then time to use 3 blue dot stickers to "vote" on the most important category and 5 red dots to denote our most important card/idea. By the time this activity was finished, I briefly explained what we would discuss after lunch.

We left for the Olive Garden for lunch and had to split into two tables as it was very busy when we arrived. Vickie, Stacy, Anna, Kenny and I sat at what was deemed "the kids table". It was fun and full of insane ideas and ridiculous stories to pass the time. I enjoyed the salad and the tasty Zuppa Tuscana soup. We were also eating with Sherri, a long time employee of the School Box (15 years) who recently retired. It was a good mental break from the meeting, but I was already feeling the effects of the first part of the day and was more quiet than usual to conserve energy. We returned and after a few minutes fired up the second half of the meeting. I covered the importance of collecting zip codes at the check-out screen in the retail stores. I also demonstrated the information that MapPoint can give us if we have that information to input in the program. I then covered the "Open Box Experience" that I get every time I receive and order from Moosejaw, an outdoor recreation supplies company based in Michigan. Their approach to package extras isn't very expensive, but the impact it has is huge. I covered the basics of my proposal for the Extra Credit Customer Loyalty Program that I had already unveiled to Dave and Chris. Everyone seemed to be very enthusiastic to get that program off the ground which is good because that is probably my number one priority for the new year of marketing. We discussed zip codes, mailing lists, and loyalty programs as well as a demo of Alison's Adventure that will be an addition to our website in the next week or so. After I got through all of my stuff we looked at the time and decided it was time to adjourn for the day. We returned to our desks and I played catchup on emails and phone calls for a bit and then after speaking with Anna about more ideas and Chris about planning more blast emails, it was 5:00. I was exhausted after being in the meeting from 10:00 - 3:30 (with a brief recess for lunch).

I went home completely drained and mentally out of things. I ate a quick bite to eat and then went to work on a simple video project. I had set up my camcorder to record the vh1 Storytellers concert featuring Dave Matthews Band and had already pulled the footage off to my hard drive. I laid down the video track, created the main and sub menus and then split the video into chapters. I set the project to burn when Christina called to let me know she was leaving her parents house to come over and visit (in case you didn't use context clues from previous blog entries, Christina got a new phone and was now able to call in addition to texting). She arrived and we watched lots of America's Funniest Home Video clips as well as Family Guy and a brief stint of Palin's address at the GOP National Convention. We soon grew tired since neither one of us go the sleep we needed and I called it an early night. I said goodnight to Christina and then went to bed around 9:30. I faded in and out of sleep at first and then fell into a coma of dreams before 11:00.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 28:7 "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."