The moment of truth has arrived.
The day of the big new business pitch has arrived.
It’s like the killer exam in third year university. The door has been firmly shut. The adjudicator has taken his seat. Your trembling hand reaches for the first page. There is no time to run out and wish you had studied more.
It’s time to present the pitch. Continue reading “Grand Slam”
I often wonder what people are thinking when we get in front of them to make a new business pitch.
We had a couple going on last week. Big ones. Agency game-changers in fact.
Each is with blue chip companies. Good-sized budgets. Great brands. Plus a history of doing interesting experiential and event work. Which makes me both excited and nervous.
Often people ask me to provide them examples of our best pitch ever. Hard to say. Perhaps because the process is like speed dating meets job interviewing. Continue reading “Home Run”
Do you ever drive by your childhood home to kindle some nostalgic embers?
What about old residence dorms? Summer camps? Or the first house you bought?
Well the other day as I was booting about town, I was shocked to see the first Toronto address I ever possessed was now reduced to rubble. It was 1988 when me and my buddies moved into 56 Berwick, fresh from university and ready to hit our first jobs. Continue reading “56 Berwick”
There is an old poem, author unknown, which includes a key stanza by which I have always lived my life. It goes like this:
Make new friends,
But keep the old.
One is Silver,
The other Gold.
I have tried to live most of my life and my career this way. Like any principle, it’s easier said than done. But it’s probably the most valuable one I have professionally. Continue reading “Make New Friends, But Keep the Old”
It’s a bit of an oxymoron, but lunching with Andy Nulman is a gas. If you don’t know Andy Nulman, he is the über-charismatic president of the Just for Laughs Festival. It’s his second stint with JFL, the first starting after he was fired as a journalist at 23 and then in 15 meteoric years rose to CEO of JFL. Then left to start Airborne Entertainment, sold it for $110 million, then bought it back for way less, and then returned to JFL in 2010. Wow… And what have YOU done in the last 20 years?
Last week, I jammed a whirlwind dose of Montréal into a 27-hour window. It’s amazing to me that despite the fact I go to the village formerly known as Hochelaga quite often, it never feels often enough. That’s good news for Porter, as I need to go back again soon. What I have realized is that it’s more than the charm of the city and the lure of its events that keeps me coming, but rather it’s the people that provide its spark. Continue reading “Tour de Montréal”
My apologies to Allstar Weekend for borrowing their URL to entitle my blog! But it was the first title that popped into my mind, and I am too pooped to come up with something else, so I don’t give a poop if they don’t like it. Besides, I have no idea who this band is…
Just kidding!
Nevertheless, “NHL” All-Star Weekend does rock in countless ways. You may not understand unless you’ve had a chance to be part of more than just the game. The NHL has taken this weekend and elevated it to a major, major, major league marketing extravaganza.
Whether it be the Scotiabank NHL Fan Fair, or the Energizer Lithium Lounge at Saturday night’s party hosted at the Molson Canadian Hockey House, there is something for young and old. Continue reading “NHL All-Star Weekend Rocks”
I apologize if you think I blog too much about football.
It’s a fair critique by the way, but I’m a big boy, I can take it. My thicker-than-usual skin on this subject matter was incubated through countless years of advice from my parents. You see, this football obsession was started at an early age and I was appropriately counseled by my folks to not put all of my eggs in a single metaphorical basket. They were right… to an extent.
But critique or not, it is nearly impossible to avoid blogging about the passing of the winningest major (U.S.) college football coach of all time, especially given the pigskin-related headlines that dominate the news. The Super Bowl contenders have been chosen. Planning for the 100th Grey Cup is well underway. Coaches are being hired, fired and re-hired, on both sides of the border. Plus, the whole horrific Sandusky allegations are rolling towards trial. (I have taken into consideration the request of the university’s interim president and stopped calling it the Penn State Affair. It really was the alleged evil of one sick individual, as opposed to an institutional crime. Unless we find out the institution’s level of complicity is higher than any of us grossly unimagined.)
The topic at hand, of course, is the sad farewell we must give Joe Paterno, who died last weekend at age 85. Continue reading “Joe Pa”
I haven’t read Influencing Powerful People yet, so I can’t give you a review on it, but it promises sixteen proven rules on how to deal with the powerful people in your life. This list of people could include a boss, client, business partner or international colleague according to the author, Dirk Schlimm. Jokingly, at least in his live presentations about the book, he also suggests it could be the border control officer you encounter at customs, or a teenager requesting the use of the car from her parents. Continue reading “Power Hungry”
On the 8th day, Timothy said to Mark… Continue reading “Timothy 29:23”
In the cold dark hours of the morning, as I dragged my recycling bin to the curb, I had a chance encounter with my newspaper carrier. It always seems odd to me watching adults deliver the paper. Not that there is anything wrong with it… but having been a ten-year-old paper-boy growing up, I still can’t shake the paradigm that the paper should be delivered by the neighbourhood kid.
Every once in a while, my departure time coincides with the delivery of one of our early morning newspapers. Usually my interaction with the delivery person is a nodded confirmation that the rag should be left on my porch, followed by a mumbled thank-you for his services.
This recent morning wasn’t much longer, but gratifyingly much more meaningful, all because of a single sentence uttered by my trusty town crier. It was all in the quick moment he took to thank me for his Christmas bonus.
Thank-you is an underused and invaluable phrase. Continue reading “Gift Receipt”
