When I went to bed Tuesday night I was 49 years old.
When I woke up yesterday morning, I was 50 years old.
August 8, 2012 marks the day I hit 1/2 a CENTURY old.
WOW!
Some nice things happened throughout the day – Deb cooked a delicious breakfast. At the Board of Directors Meeting for the Local Association, the whole board broke out with the Birthday song and lit a candle for my cookie . . . Late afternoon was family gift giving, and I SCORED with a beautiful new watch from Deb – a turtle Tie from Allison – and a bright RED athletic shirt from Jessica . . . all PERFECT gifts. Deb gave me a hat and t-shirt which labeled me as a “Vintage Dude”
Deb said she had reservations at a local “Sports Bar” called the Crow’s Nest . . . A little odd because we’ve never been there as a family, but I rolled with the flow.
When we arrived at the Crow’s Nest, we were whisked upstairs through a dark hall and out onto a rooftop patio where I found our friend Jeff sitting all alone at the bar. I looked around me and noticed decorations and balloons (Black because I apparently am reaching “Death Age”).
Of course, I figured out this was going to be a surprise party . . . What I could not have even guessed was the myriad folks who would show up in a steady stream. Somehow, Deb had successfully invited people in my life from high school friends, to REALTORS (Colleagues), to Soccer families . . . It was a veritable smorgasbord of people few of which knew each other prior to the party.
I LOVE parties like this because new relationships happen SO naturally in that kind of environment . . . an environment in which they ALL have ONE thing in common already (They all know ME and are there for my birthday).
This reminds me of the probable truth that most weddings result in new relationships that lead to more weddings 🙂 . . . For likely the same reasons as above.
And then I wonder what we can learn from this as business people who are interested in engaging other folks in the community and thereby growing our businesses all the while contributing to community development?
How can we create more of this so that we do less of the shot-gun approach lead generation?
the answer is easier than you might think.
Define a common theme . . .
Issue an open invitation to anyone and everyone who might have a common interest/passion for this theme to come together on X day at Y time at Z place.
Show up . . . and watch what happens.
One thing I know for sure . . . Amazing things will get done.
It’s also why Parties for all your clients can lead to HUGE rewards.
BEST Birthday EVER!
If you stopped having birthday parties and inviting all of your friends, perhaps there’s a measure of rethinking in order 🙂