My sister was telling me about an opportunity she had recently to market her photography studio through an event at her church.
Each Halloween, her church puts on an event for the kids to come in costume and celebrate in a safe non-threatening way. Instead of going door-to-door to ask for candy, the kids go car-to-car instead. Each adult with a vehicle decorates the trunk of their car in a Halloween or Fall theme and hands out candy to the kids who ask.
My sister decorated her trunk as a photography studio. As each family came to her car, she offered to take a picture of the kids in costume. Using her photo printer — conveniently in the trunk — she printed off a copy for the parents and stuck a sticker on the back with her name, phone and address. Brilliant!
Next year, she should offer to email a copy to the parents instead. By taking two pictures, one with the kids in costume, and another with a piece of paper on which the parent’s email address is written, she’ll have an instant warm lead to follow up with as the holidays approach. Sending the picture by email also builds a rapport between her and the family for future business.
Good thinking, sis!
Groundhog Resolution Review day is here again. Last month, I completely revamped my goals to more accurately align with the craziness going on in my life at the moment.
Previous Goals
Prep our House to Sell
- Meet with 2 realtors to determine a selling price. 10/19. Completed 10/19.
- Sort through all our junk to have a garage sale. My mother-in-law has been recruited to handle the actual sale, but everything needs to be sorted and moved to her house by 10/18. Done
- Declutter for showings by 10/23. Late, but done.
- Bang through as much of the Honey-do list of repairs as is possible. This list will most likely grow after meeting with the realtors. 10/23. Done, I think.
Look for a new house in Indy
- Review listings suggested by realtor. 10/12. Done
- Visit Indy and attend some showings. 10/28. Done
- We have found, and made an offer on, a house in Fortville a suburb of Indy.
Business dealings
- Touch base with my remaining contacts here to see if they know anyone down there. 10/19. Failed. Didn’t really contact anyone with everything else going on.
- Create a networking website (with a minimum of a blog) for Indianapolis freelancers. 11/2. ???. After last month’s mention of “Indianapolis freelancers” I was contacted by Noah from IndyLance.com a freelance group in Indianapolis. Too bad it was after I had already registered my own freelance domain name.
- Freshen up my business website. 11/11. Late My schedule has cleared up a bit, so picked up this task again.
- Attend the User Interface conference in Cambridge, MA. 11/8. Canceled. Despite looking forward to this conference, I just didn’t think it was right to attend, leaving the boys in the care of others while both parents were gone.
Servanthood Leadership
- Find one active way to serve my sons each day. In progress. I started strong, doing things like helping the kids make their beds or taking dirty laundry down for them, but sort of stopped doing things deliberately toward the end of the period.
- Continue to remember that we must function as a family, and therefore its important to continue to do deliberate activities together at least once per week. Pass. We tried to do something fun with the kids each weekend. The Bee Movie is pretty good, BTW.
Be fit
I’m not going to set much of a goal here, other than keeping an eye on my diet.
- Cut soda and junk snacks from my diet. 10/19. Failed. Halloween is bad, bad news.
- Begin tracking dietary intake again. 11/2. Failed. I haven’t been diligent in starting to track my food again.
Write More
I’m going to start using my daily journal entry as a place to track these goals with more regularity. At the next review, I should have a nice bullet list to know where my successes have been.Failed. Again I started strong, but didn’t finish well. I stuck my journal in the nightstand during a frantic cleaning, and haven’t pulled it out since. I did keep a little bullet list of accomplishments, though.
New Goals
Only a couple of new changes here, otherwise I’ll keep working at the failed and “in progress” ones listed above.
- Move? We don’t close on the new house until December 20th, unless the builder finishes up the remaining changes sooner than than. We though we might move to Indy and live in corporate housing after Thanksgiving.
- Enjoy the start of the holidays. If we really are moving, I don’t want to rush through Thanksgiving and forget the purpose: Being thankful as well as spending time with friends and family.
What the heck are Groundhog Day Resolutions?
From last month’s installment:
The whole idea for moving New Year’s Resolutions to Groundhog Day instead was an idea by David Seah. The best part of the idea is a monthly review to see how the goals have gone and to readjust as necessary. To make it more memorable, Dave suggests doing the review on the day that matches the number of the month (2/2, 3/3, 4/4, etc.)
The GHDRR quartet
There are four primary followers of the Groundhog Day Resolution Reviews (that I know of). Below is a link to the others. I’ve posted to their October reviews; I’ll update to the new ones if I remember to.
- Our fearless leader, Dave Seah at Groundhog Day Resolution Review Day 7.
- Corrie Haffly at October Review for Groundhog Day Resolutions.
- Gary V. Vaughan at GHD Resolution Review Day 7.
Previous series posts
My previous claptrap on the subject: