This week there are two columns by Tom Friedman and David Brooks about education that have caught my eye.  Not real sexy stuff here but I have been thinking about what makes a great employee or business lately and these articles took me back to thinking about education and how it impacts people we hire for our business.   (Yes, we are a business who is hiring again.)  Most think our educational system is a failed, bankrupt and crumbling system.  

I live in the suburbs and see mostly good ones, but boy do I worry about the bad ones.   When we hire many of our workers it can be very apparent that some come from pretty bad ones, even in the great State of Minnesota and even college grads.   You see the failed systems, family or schools,  right in front of your eyes on the written employee application.   Yikes!

Brooks and Friedman, both of the New York Times, wrote in their own ways about what is hidden from the front pages  about the fledgling work for education reform.   There is a lot going on behind the scenes that I can get excited about.  And you know things must be getting better when you have Jeb Bush, Al Sharpton and Bill Gates all applauding the efforts of Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education.

I completely agree with Friedman that winners will be the new “untouchables”.  These are the people who make things happen- no excuses.  They have the brain and emotional intelligence to find opportunities and then do something with them.   I see them everyday.  We all recognize them in our families, our work, our churches and in school.   And we all know the ones who don’t have it and won’t ever get it. 

The question I have is:   can you teach this- “untouchable-ness”   Or is the drive to be the one who makes things happen something that is bred in families and culture- and education is only the gloss? 

David Brooks in his column this week writes about Duncan’s educational reform efforts without reference to Friedman’s term ”untouchable”.  Duncan is an untouchable.  And I love the competition, real world efforts he is using to drive reform.  I have experienced many educators who don’t seem of this world so this is new and refreshing for me.  

There is nothing more boring to the media then something that is actually working.  Therefore, we don’t hear much about educational reform.  What is so frustrating and head-bangingly mystifying is why the biggest laggards to the education reform party are the very people who should be in the forefront- teachers.

I hope the piles of money being used for this competition between states works.   Maybe adding the real world of reward system of promoting educational untouchables and showing the door to the rest will be the best test for me to see if it really will work.   Will teacher’s unions allow that to happen.   Hmmm, I will get back to you on that.     Check out the two columns I refereneced below. 

We did an amazing things this week at our place.  We held two Holiday HQ open house events…….hosted a buying group event at one of our client’s corporate offices……..redid our showroom (so darn cute and all ready for the holidays)……..sent out a slew of marketing materials………reset all our stores for our Stocking Stuffer HQ $5, $10, $20 program……..we are in the middle of opening a  new store at MSP Airport…….AND on top of that we are having one of our best sales months in our Promotions division- ever- with our retail division pacing way ahead of last year sales.  We are bucking all the woe-is-me economic news out there.   Whew, I am tired just typing this…

Thank you, thank you, thank you wonderful, dedicated, smart and terrific staff at St. Croix Promotions and Retail.   We truly are REFUSING TO PARTICIPATE IN THE RECESSION.   And it is because of all  your hard work and dedication. 

Special thanks too to Laurie Crow owner of Sinful Wine & Liquors in Bloomington.  She hosted our wine tasting at our Holiday HQ event and you must check out her store at Southtown Center.  Laurie is the winner of the 2009 Woman on the Move award from SCORE.  She can do custom branded label wine and check out all her wine events. http://www.sinfulwine.com

 One last thing, we are St. Croix Promotions would like to extend our sadness and sympathy at the passing of one of the true professionals in our business:  Charlie Irish from Spartan Promotions.   To Charlie’s friends, family, collegues and customers please accept our condolences and God Bless Charlie.

My iPhone had that thing.  That  Google”trojan” thing that disrupted life for at least two weeks.   My close family and friends who heard my constant yipping would say it was months.  Everything on the phone was super slow and texting was like watching paint dry on a humid day. 

Aren’t we all fascinated and frustrated by technology? I generally love my iPhone, but the I get the Microsoft commercial that states “I am not cool enough to be an Apple”.  

I made an appointment at my local Apple Store and one of the a blond-highlighted-faux-hawk ”Geniuses”, in a tee shirt telling you he is a “Genius”, wiped out my phone to kill that trojan.  I felt like I was killing off a friend- my poor baby iPhone.   

This Apple Genuis had been trained well to act emphatically with canned “I understand”, “I hear you” reaffirmantions coming out of pierced lips.  In all fairness, it was 8:30pm, yet I’m pretty sure he rolled his eyes- not the best customer service attitude.

It was clear to both of us that I was not cool enough to be there.  He was the sterotype of Apple cool.  And I was all PC in the same sterotypical way,  I just didn’t have on black socks, (bad sandals though).  

To be fair to Apple I had the exact opposite experience in Chicago with their store on Michigan Avenue.   Again, at closing I had a problem, and this Genius genuinely tried to help me and he gave me a used charger cord to use with a wink saying, “Don’t tell anyone.”  What a doll.

It reminded me how important not just saying the right words in customer service, but really meaning it.  Genuinely wanting to help with a servant attitude to assist because, lets face it:    The quality of any relationship is how you handle it when things go wrong.  And the longer you work with someone things will go wrong. 

So how do you handle it?   Never with rolled eyes I hope.

Here is a cute Arlo and Janis that made me laugh, I hope you like it too.  Now can someone tell me the best model of Kindle to buy, so I have another gadget to drive me crazy?

http://comics.com/arlo&janis/2009-08-20/

I was at a recent seminar and a question was asked that had me scratching my head-  “How do you deal with clients finding items on the internet and chasing only the lowest prices.”  Why would anyone risk this in today’s where-the-heck-was-that-made-and-by-whom environment.

You may get lucky and the tote you buy won’t be made in some sweatshop, or the plastic bottle you save a dime on won’t be filled with poisonous chemical plastics, or maybe that tee shirt really is organic, or maybe not.  As Mattel learned even if you think you are careful things aren’t always as they seem.  

So knock yourself out,  if you don’t respect your brand enough to make sure you are not only getting a great price but also a responsibly made and safe product, then go for it knucklehead.   And then lets talk about delivery, meeting your deadline and easing your mind about that event you need this product for…well, good luck with that too.

Our industry is still in the 90’s in many quality ways, except for the “Good Guys” as I call them.  The folks, our great suppliers, who care about their brand as much as yours and know what they are doing.  No one can tell you that every single item we sell is 100% inspected, but if you trust industry professionals you won’t be on the front page with some kid having ingested some race bracelet you saved $.02 on and died.

Don’ save a nickel and lose your brand– or your business.

On most days around 3:00pm in our office one of two things happen.   The entire office is on a rampage looking for salt (as in chips to munch down) or sugar (as in anything sweet with a crunch- cookies work). 

I believe our office has the unofficial record for devouring an entire double stuff Oreo cookie bag in, oh let’s say, about 3 minutes.  (Mike, in fairness did not partake, the party-pooper.) Typically you can find something either salty or sugary in Beth’s office.    

The other 3:00pm possibility is a silly online game that the entire office plays or we play with some goofy toy or gift our retail buyers have found for one of our stores. 

Well, Monday was the goofy toy day.   I love anything with both movement and sound and two adorable new toys for our stores just made us all laugh.  Check it out and you will too.  I think half the fun is just seeing everyones reaction, especially mine.  They just crack me up.

So next time your day has the 3:00 blues try a silly toy (hats work too; or my other favorite- Snugglers!)   We all need something goofy to break up your day and put a smile on your face.  Which one do you like best?  email me at: pady@scpromo.com and let me know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2pd91_6pJI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2pd91_6pJI

Use games to engage people on websites.   Here is a link to template games we offer that can be modified to fit branding.  It is a lower cost option then starting from scratch…. and just as fun.  What a great 3:00pm workday break to give your web users.   Check it out.  To play be sure to use the user id, password offered below.

http://www.prizesuite.com/catalog/games.html

user name:  reps      Password:  suiteprize

Last week our whole office played another great website game at Best Buy’s  http://www.at15.com     Quite a few of us scored “almost perfect”.     We were all laughing our head off, and trust me we are all way over 15.   Try it out.

Another one of our clients has a fun game.  When I hear giggling and competitive banter in the sales department I know they are playing this game.  It Health Partners “Whack a Molar”.   See the plush piece, Pearl E. White, that makes the branding fun and 3d below.  What a great way to find a dentist.  HP has even done character costumes for events.  Is it possible that kids will now find the dentist hip and fun?

http://whereteethbelong.com/

Official Spoketooth for Health Partners

It Snuggler time! Today it is September in June in Minnesota (about 65 degrees) and we are wrapped up in Snugglers. Check out what I have been wearing around the office.

Our retail stores will be one of the first to carry Snugglers for all teams and our promotions team can do custom items.

They are hilarious and kitchy fun. Rumor has it Snugglers are a hot pub crawl item. It has been a few years since my pub crawl days. Let me know if you see any… I need Snuggler alerts.

Check out the latest “Did You Know” video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY

So what does it all mean?  I am not too sure.  Maybe keeping our communications clear and simple, authentic and grateful, humble and generous will respond to all this clutter.

All I know is I go to the Lake in a week and I guarantee I won’t be contemplating that what I know is obsolete.  I just hope the fish are biting and the water is warm enough in Northern Minnesota to swim. 

What do you think?

I found Tett’s examples especially helpful and insightful.   According to her all these credit default swaps and slicing and dicing of mortgages started innocently enough by JP Morgan as a way to BUILD trust and reduce risk.   Ah, but that is where the cheatin’ started and the dreaded unintended-consequences-monster rampaged through the economy. 

Surprising:  According to the author, JP Morgan, the somewhat innocent instigators, got out of most of this risky stuff but the rest of financial world went crazy with greed and fake profits.  Poof- we watched global economic trust burst into pieces.  These authors say it is really that simple. 

But maybe we are in the process of taping those pieces back together.  I hope with duct tape because a friend of mine, a terrific tennis player,  recently told me that duct tape, on top of making things sometimes stronger, has medicinal purposes.  It can heal callouses and hold muscles together.  A roll is always in his gym bag.  Who knew?

But just like watching Elizabeth I see alot more forced and genuine smiles lately.  And that is good.  We are faking it and making it.  We are on our way back to a trust that may not take us back to where we were but something we can live with.   Its a new world and I think it is exciting. 

Do we have a new taped up reality that will be let us live with this contrite economy that wants our forgiveness?   Let’s just make sure we use duct tape.

OK, I am now fully over Susan Boyle. When she trimmed her eyebrows, I lost interest. Good luck to her though, I hope she beats the cute kid singers.

I have been watching with interest as the media descends and scares the holy heck out of us with the Flu. Talk about a world wide mommy. A much more serious story, I know, but the latest new one Media Mommy is selling to us non the less.

The beauty and curse of global communications is that we all get to worry and freak out about the same things at the same time. Who hasn’t squirmed this week when a co-worker sneezed or coughed? (By the way, sorry, Pete, Dawn and Conrad for that little coughing spell in our meeting yesterday. I swear I just had a bit of water go down the wrong pipe. I am ok, really- no bug here, not to worry.)

So why worry? I choose not to. Anyone else out there that agrees?

Which brings me to my friends in the travel industry. How much more can this group take? I see a dazed look in some of my pals faces as they contemplate, ok, I was just figuring out how to squeeze by in this economy, now this? Come to my destination and we will throw in the antibacterial spray and face mask as a gift with purchase?

I have a good friend who went to Hawaii this week to visit her new granddaughter and is convinced she may not come back alive because of the Flu outbreak. She tried seven stores to purchase a face mask for the plane ride and could not find one. She had her partner take her picture before she left by her garden, in case it was her last one. Yikes! How do you overcome that. I think by saying what the heck- Lets have fun!

Where can I go that is close, cheap and do they have a hot tub? I love the new Country Inn ads that show a family where the Dad and boys are running around, playing in the pool, racing go-carts, all while Mom contemplates how they are bonding- in the spa -by herself. Now that is the ticket.

Happy Mothers Day out there! And Media Mommy- take the week off will you? Go sit in a hot tub, the germs in there will make you stronger.