Jenny Snyder

I have a lot of blog catching up to do... so I'm hoping for multiple posts this week.

For now, I have to flip back to my birthday a few weeks ago.  Probably one of the most fun "at work" birthdays I've ever had... thanks to a creative new business pitch!  I don't think I'm allowed to give away too much because of my NDA, but we had a potential client coming in to meet with our Executives on the same day as my b-day.  And thanks to some brilliant thinkers that our agency has, they developed a great proposal with a funny element that incorporated the entire staff -- T-shirts that detailed certain aspects of our personality.  I was dubbed "Takeout Queen" since I hardly ever cook... and when I do, I've got a decent shot at setting the smoke alarm off, setting something on fire, turning foods colors they weren't intended to be, etc etc.

Below is the result of the t-shirt portion of the pitch.  The font of my shirt says "Pecan Pie"; the back says "Takeout Queen/Home cooking made easy".

Thing #167 I love about my new job:  pets are welcome in the office!

Rowdy spent the afternoon with me on Monday and Fletch spent the afternoon with me on Tuesday.  This was Rowdy's second visit - Fletch's first.  I've tried to pick a couple of "low-key" days to see how they both do and I learned that Rowdy is a great office dog... Fletch, notsomuch.  He's a little too anxious and high-strung.  Rowdy, on the other hand, pretty much sits still on my desk or lays in my lap the whole time - he's much more well-behaved.

Sharing Cheetos with Mama

And here's another frequent office visitor, Derby:

Derby is an adorable Papillion who comes in with his mom, Nicole, to serve as our bartender.  He does an OUTSTANDING job!  :) 

We also have Sam, a black lab who belongs to Billie; Sophie, a Rottweiler puppy who belongs to Michelle; and Laney, Claire's sister's dog (who comes in with Claire).

Once again, I'm behind on my blogging... so I'm going to try to catch up on the last few weeks in the next few days.

Starting back on August 9th... I took a fun overnight work trip to Cincinnati (my first trip there) with one of the speakers that I work for, Brian Parsley.  I booked him for a seminar there that grew to a 1,500 person event, so we decided that this was a great opportunity for us to sell product there as well... hence my going along on the trip.  We left on a Thursday afternoon and arrived in a whirlwind between getting Brian's AV check done, doing a quick meeting with the client, getting my 20 boxes of product to the right place, trying to grab a quick bite to eat at the food court (and giving it time to digest), etc... madness!  No time to relax.

But the funny part was the next day.  Our company has purchased a block of time for Brian to fly on SATSair, so he opted to take one of their planes home.  I knew it was a small, private plane... but I figured something slightly roomy with a private bathroom, reclining seats, and I could feel free to move about the cabin once the fasten seat belt sign was no longer illuminated.  Boy was I wrong.  This is what we flew home in:

Yea.  Exactly what I was thinking.  "So that's the toy model that I can fit in my pocket.  Where's the full-sized one that the real people ride in?"

So... after I shoved a few Xanax followed by a few Dramamine down by throat (okay, not really... but I was wishing!)... I boarded.  And how do you board such a plane?  YOU CLIMB ON THE WING.  Right.  So I climbed on the wing into the backseat.  Inside it was about the size of a car.  Okay, a very small car.  A very small 2-door sporty car.  Brian sat in the front with the pilot so I was able to stretch out a little.

Once we got going, the ride was actually far smoother than a large plane... I was pleasantly surprised, especially considering my tendency towards motion sickness.  And then the pilot, Mr. Burns (A+ for the fact that he shared his name with a Simpsons character), handed me 2 packs of freshly baked Otis Spunkmeyer cookies for later.  Okay... SATSair has officially won me over.

We had to wear headseats to communicate inside the plane because it was so loud.  And once we were up above the clouds, I took a few pictures because it was actually breathtaking up there.  I'm scared of heights... but there was actually something quite peaceful and serene about being all the way above everything else.

Following my return back to Charlotte that Friday, Kevin and I spent the rest ofweekend in Raleigh visiting with family and celebrating family birthdays a couple of weeks early. 

This will be relatively short as it's now late here and I'm tired... and I've got a 6:15am wake up call set. 

This morning, we heard Dan Burris speak... he's a futurist and challenged the audience to think about "the next step".  He works as a speaker and consultant for large Fortune 500 companies... and is the mastermind behind the Doritos make-your-own-commercial Superbowl campaign. 

This afternoon, we heard an amazing man named Ross Shafer speak on performance... he was by far the most funny and entertaining speaker thus far in my opinion.  He has performed with a number of top notch comedians, spent some time on the Tonight Show, and had a couple of his own reality shows.

I also had the fortune of meeting a man named Pat Hazell this afternoon who is a friend of Jeffrey's as well as Michelle and Emily from our office.  Pat is a former writer for Seinfeld as well as a stand-up comedian... as well as an all-around nice guy.  He is presenting at a breakout session tomorrow, so I look forward to hearing him speak.

This evening, we went to the NSA Foundation dinner.  Michelle is good friends with the foundation chair, so we were guests of his at the head table for the event.  They had a live auction followed by an amazing a capella group named Tonic Sol-Fa  (see the picture below).

(Michelle and I at dinner)

(Tonic Sol-fa)

Now... I'm totally beat and ready for bed!!  :)

Jet lag has set in MUCH harder today than yesterday.  We got up around 6:15, had a room service breakfast, then headed down to the main ballroom for our opening general session.  We heard an amazing speaker named Dr. Sue Morter who talked about personal wellness and being - she was amazing and truly motivating!  Michelle and I attended a breakout session after that by Rebecca Nagy that was continuum on Dr. Sue's talk... power of positive thinking, law of attraction, etc.  I sat next to Steve Rizzo, who is one of Jeffrey's good friends... and who owns several birds including an African Grey.  Of course, we exchanged a few funny bird stories - his can sing "Rockin' Robin" (but substitutes Robin for another bird's name).

At our lunch session, we had a special guest... the "Evolution of Dance" guy, who most everyone in the audience knew simply from You Tube fame.  I was so excited!  (sorry, I tried to embed the video, but typed and You Tube aren't compatible yet...)

Our afternoon speaker was Randy Gage, and I skipped the afternoon breakout so that I could come upstairs and tackle my work emails in an effort to not get too behind this week.  Tonight was our "free night"... there was some sort of cigar fundraiser that most people went to, but Michelle and I opted for dinner at a hotel restaurant.  I had a yummy lobster salad followed by lobster bisque followed by bread pudding and washed down with a glass of Riesling.

I'm off to bed at a decent hour again, still trying to get my body re-adjusted to the time change... probably just in time to board a flight back home.  Kevin told me today that Rowdy gets confused when he hears my voice on the other end of the phone and runs to the window and the door.  As much fun as we're having, I miss the hubby and the kids a lot.  :)

Michelle and I arrived in San Diego this morning for the National Speakers' Assocation Convention.... 3,000 people strong!  We're staying at the Manchester Grand Hyatt and were fortunate enough to arrive at 10am... just in time to score a harborview room on the top (28th) floor.  This is our view:

Michelle, Bill Whitley (another Gitomer speaker), and I checked in at NSA registry, met a number of Michelle's speaker friends, and then had lunch at one of the hotel restaurants.  Michelle and I then went exploring in downtown San Diego for a couple of hours.  Neat... but not what we thought it would be.  Mostly either bars and restaurants or tourist shops.  Although we did find this lovely statue that Michelle fit perfectly under:

The convention offically kicked off at 6pm with a keynote speaker from the Disney Institute.  We sat in the back and were mostly distracted by people who wanted to rub Michelle's pregnant belly and meet the new "Gitomer girl".  :)  After the opening session, we grabbed a quiet dinner with Robin Sieger, Jeffrey's speaker friend from London, then went to a couple of bars to hang out with some other speaker friends from the convention.  As it stands, I'm wiped out and severly jet-lagged, so I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep!  More tomorrow...

Wow... I've gotten REALLY behind on blogging!  I wanted to put this in a few weeks ago... since it happened nearly 3 weeks ago, but there's just been so much going on.

Most of you who know me well know that I do NOT like to be in front of crowds of people.  I'm not into public speaking and I was in knots during the time leading up to my wedding thinking about the number of people that would be staring straight at me.  And yes, Kevin would be there, too... but the bride bears the brunt.

The irony of this whole "fear of being in front of others thing" is that (a) I have a degree in theater and spent many, many years onstage year-round, and (b) that I work for a man who makes a living as a public speaker.  I send him from city to city and country to country and am on the phone daily with executives from Nike Golf and Best Buy telling them how awesome Jeffrey Gitomer is.

So... my co-worker, Michelle, wanted me to attend a public speaking course led by Jeffrey's friend, Ty Boyd.  Since she suggestedwould be a major confidence builder for me, I decided to go.

Without rambling on and on about everything we did, I gave 12 speeches (about 6 were literally improv/off-the-cuff) in 3 days in a room with about 15 total strangers and a video camera glaring at me during most of them.  I lept over hurdles that I never in my life thought I would cross and felt strength and pride in myself that I've never tapped into before.  The course was amazing!

Am I joining Toastmasters?  No.  Am I planning to speak in public anytime soon?  No.  But I do find myself to be a better communicator, smoother speaker, more relaxed, and more confident.

Click here for the course info:  http://www.tyboyd.com/excellenceinspeakinginstitute.html