5 Tips for Turning a Thought Shower into a Brainstorm
The benefits of a good brainstorming session are numerous! Whether you do it solo, or in a group, taking time to generate a wide range of ideas leads to diverse solutions and creative innovations. The best part about this exercise is its flexibility – you can do it at any time or in any place. There are some basic “rules” to follow though for maximum results.
It’s About Quantity, not Quality
Workflowy reminds us that brainstorming is about generating lots of ideas, not critiquing them as they fly into play. Brainstorming is about creativity and being open to anything. Evaluating those ideas comes later.
Positivity Rules the Play
Being critical of ideas in a brainstorming session defeats the purpose. Being positive relates to the idea givers as well as the receivers. Remember, there are no dumb ideas in this setting. At Motivation Excellence, to encourage collaboration, we suggest having a “plussing” environment where someone can add on to another’s idea if it moves it in a positive direction.
Get Comfortable
Balancing on a high wire is not the place to brainstorm! Not only is that scenario very uncomfortable, you clearly can’t relax and let your mind wander off task. Comfort is key and that can be different for each person. That could be why, as work efficiency company Mural points out, there is evidence showing virtual brainstorming jams can actually be more effective than meeting in person. The important point is that in a group session, there is shared space of some kind, that includes a Zoom or Teams meeting, and that everyone feels at their most comfortable.
- Play with lighting
- Wear comfortable clothing
- Pace, lay down or sit cross-legged – whatever opens up your pathways
- Try different kinds of music, or absolute silence
- Have a favorite beverage and snack at the ready
Have Some Structure
While the end result of brainstorming might feel and look like a chaotic jumble of half thoughts, to get there it’s good to have some boundaries. Mural suggests having a defined topic, an agenda and a leader to help guide the process.
Allow Yourself a Break
This is especially important when gnawing over finding a solution to a problem solo. Start with all of the above strategies, for sure, but remember that sometimes the best ideas come after they’ve had some time to sit in your subconscious. Job search company The Muse, suggests some long-term brainstorming tactics like:
- Breaking for some physical or creative activity
- Exposing yourself to a topic totally different than what you’re brainstorming on
- Taking notes as they hit you
No one comes up with the absolute right answer to an issue immediately, every time. Allowing yourself the luxury of brainstorming can turn a few idea droplets into a flood of possibilities. The next step, evaluation, is like splashing in the puddles to find the top contenders. Hopefully the end result is one or two viable solutions ready to shine in the sunlight. Good luck!
Discover What Company Meetings Can Be with Motivation Excellence
Everyone knows what a meeting is, but not everyone knows what they can be, or how to put together a truly inspiring one. Our experts at Motivation Excellence know how to make your next company meeting or event one people can’t wait to attend! From technology to personalization, our team gets how to help you shine at your next company meeting or event.
Elevating your next meeting experience takes effort. You have important information to share and you want your attendees to not only remember it the next day, but also act on it. They need to leave feeling motivated and inspired! Let’s look at three critical areas to consider when planning a meeting that excels at capturing enthusiasm and creating momentum.
Strategy
- This is the foundation for success and risk reduction.
- What are your goals, who is your audience, what environment do you want to curate?
- Logistical considerations like destination, venue and talent take shape here.
Engagement
- What’s your core message and how best do you deliver it?
- Interaction with attendees can start long before the meeting does.
- What technology will be needed to encourage participation and ultimate learning?
Impact
- How will you measure success?
- What are the actionable elements your attendees will walk away with?
- Business intel learned now will help build on future success.
We’re Your Full-Service Partner
Having a partner that can help you mitigate risk, inspire creativity and handle everything from Strategy to Impact gives your team the ability to concentrate on other high priority projects. We’re here to assist where you need us. We’re flexible and can handle everything meetings and events-related, including:
- destination/venue consultations
- contract negotiations
- registration and air bookings
- pre- and post-engagement with your participants
- wow-worthy elements on-site including entertainment, A/V, gifting and more
Pick and choose how to use us. We’re an extension of your team!
Technology that Makes A Difference
Our proprietary travel technology, Inspire, helps personalize each attendees’ experience from enrollment to post-meeting follow-up. Flight information, itineraries, break-out session FAQs, an interactive photo gallery and the ability for organizers to post alerts in real time are just a few of the features that make this a must-have tool for your next meeting or event. In the backend, dashboards and the functionality to drill down to details give planners incredible organizational options.
Feedback shows us that Inspire has been a game changer for many seasoned meetings and events participants. Having access to all meeting details on a phone or tablet literally lightens everyone’s load. The flexibility to customize features to fit your company’s needs adds immense value too.
We have 40 years of experience delivering excellence in the B2B incentives, group travel, meeting, event, loyalty and performance improvement industry. We Inspire Extraordinary Performance with the people who mean the most to the success of your business.
Did we catch your attention? Contact us to learn more about creating wow-worthy company meetings and events with Motivation Excellence.
3 Key Things About Sales Incentives to Keep in Mind
We are all about sales incentives here at Motivation Excellence. Sales incentive programs are powerful tools designed to motivate and reward sales teams for reaching goals that help your bottom line. While the premise of an incentive program might seem simple, designing a successful one involves more than a goal and a reward.
We are here to help your organization motivate your sales team, and even distributor partners. Don’t hesitate to contact us to learn more about our customized sales incentives. In the meantime, here are three key things to keep in mind:
1. The Details Matter
Incentives are very flexible. We build them to fit your audience and goals. We start from scratch with each client and guide you through several steps to find the best way to minimize your risk and maximize your results. We start with your objectives, look at your obstacles and then recommend the best way to motivate your sales team while bringing you the most robust ROI. Here are some other details you don’t want to overlook:
- Audience – Determining who you want to motivate and what you want them to do to earn the reward is an important step in creating a successful sales incentive program. You can have more than one set of participants too.
- Rules – We shine at doing a deep dive into your available data, along with industry trends, to cultivate a set of rules that protects you financially AND allows for realistic growth among your participants.
- Measurement – Being able to measure progress through analytics is a great way to keep your sales team motivated. It also helps you make adjustments in real time to capture the best results.
- Rewards – If they’re not motivating, you’ve lost before you started. Branded swag, lifestyle upgrade packages, individual experiences and group travel with other top performers are a few popular rewards you can use in a sales incentive program. They also work well with channel teams.
2. Proper Implementation Is Critical to Success
How you launch a sales incentive can lead to an excited boost or a disappointed fizzle. Subsequently how you continue to communicate with your sales team can help ramp up or stall the success of the program. Here are a few things we like to implement in our incentive programs:
- Make sure your management is on board and ready to hype the program.
- Create a consistent engagement plan that keeps your sales team members’ attention.
- Display an easy-to-read progress-to-goal gauge for everyone in the incentive and update it at a regular cadence.
- Keep the significant other in the loop with targeted communications so they can be a cheerleader outside work.
3. Sales Incentive Programs Can Improve Overall Company Outlook
Rounding out the list of key things to know about sales incentives is why they are worthwhile. Incentives targeted at the people who do the most to increase your profitability, positively affect your bottom line, which can boost morale, even for those not directly part of the incentive. A successful sales incentive can also:
- Provide friendly competition among your sales team, which can naturally increase sales.
- Help you retain talent as part of your total compensation package.
- Keep your sales team engaged with their own goals, but also the overall goals of the company.
- Build stronger relationships between company leaders and individual sales team members.
Incentivizing your sales team can make an enormous difference in revenue and growth. We encourage you to learn more about all of our incentive and loyalty offerings by visiting our Motivation Excellence website.
We are industry leaders who specialize in customized solutions for your B2B channel and internal sales team incentives. When your team is engaged, motivated and eager, great things happen. Our programs are designed specifically for that purpose. Let’s get started today!
How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Channel Incentive Programs
Effectively growing sales revenues and market share is an ongoing challenge in today’s highly competitive marketplace. Moreover, encouraging channel partners and dealer reps to do their best by you takes strategy. Channel incentive programs are designed to help your business stand out among your competitors and can actually pay for themselves through incremental sales growth. Another great benefit of a well-run channel incentive program is the increased loyalty they foster, which can continue to reap rewards long into the future.
How do we measure the effectiveness of a channel focused incentive? There are a variety of metrics from hard sales numbers to program website log ins. It’s important to decide how you’ll know if a channel incentive is a success and keep track of those metrics regularly throughout the life of the program. Here are a few suggested metrics to consider:
1. Sales Performance
Although sales performance is not the only factor to consider, it is a good starting place. You can break down sales data rather minutely if that helps you make decisions on who and what to focus on. You can look at:
- Revenue by distributor, geography, and products/categories
- Overall and partner-specific sales growth
- Market share changes over a specified amount of time
Looking at sales performance metrics provides a broad overview of how your organization and its partners are doing on the revenue front. By looking at partner-specific sales growth, you can zero-in on the performance of individual channel partners. Between the two, you’ll glean important information about where you are now and where you want to be in short- and long-term periods.
2. Partner Engagement
Successful channel incentive programs engage partners. So, it is a smart idea to come up with some partner engagement metrics you can track. At the top of the list is participation rate. What percentage of your invited distribution partners enroll? Of those, who is consistently engaging with your company through increased purchases, and who could be coaxed to perform better with some TLC?
Other partner engagement metrics include:
- Interaction with sales team or customer service reps
- Incentive website log in frequency
- Email open rates with special focus on clickthrough percentages
- Amount of new sales tied to the focus of your incentive
If a channel incentive program is both attractive and meaningful to partners, they will reflect their interest with the amount of time and frequency they interact with the program.
3. New Opportunities and ROI
Effective channel incentive programs can open the door to more opportunities via stronger relationships and trust with your company. A well-designed channel incentive can more than pay for itself via incremental sales in the present, but the opportunity to be a long-term partner is where the continued ROI shines through. A metric here could be longevity of a client in addition to quantity of sales. We’ve seen long-running incentive programs foster participants who outperform industry trends even in flat and down markets.
Channel incentive programs can be invaluable in the drive to increase sales and grow an organization. But like all other business tools, program effectiveness must be continually measured so you can make adjustments in real time to capitalize on unexpected results, good or bad. Program design and rule structures are proven ways to get the best return and least risk for your program. We’re here to help you get started today!
Get to Know ME with Alison Gavitt
It’s time for our Get to Know ME segment, featuring our Strategic Account Director, Alison Gavitt. Alison is a people person through and through! Read below to learn about her penchant for furniture moving, as well as how she prepares for a good brainstorming session. And be sure to watch her short video too. Do you hear a regional accent? Thanks Alison, for letting us get to know you better!
What’s your current title and how long have you been in the incentive industry?
I am a Strategic Account Director and I’ve been in the incentive industry since 2009, and in hotel sales before that.
What do you like about your job?
Building relationships with clients and creating strategic solutions. I consider myself an extension of my clients’ team which gives me a great feeling of satisfaction.
What’s something you want to share about the people you work with at Motivation Excellence?
Everyone has a fun spirit – always smiles, kindness and patience going around!
What’s a specific moment in your history that always stands out as a defining moment, and why?
Moving home (Huntsville, AL) six years ago after living in Jackson Hole, WY for the better part of 30 years. I can replay every mile of the 3-day drive.
What’s an unknown or odd talent you have?
An odd thing we do in our family is rearranging the furniture! We all do it – all the time. Upon a simple suggestion, we tend to drop everything and just start moving furniture. From time to time, we change up bedrooms and switch up living rooms.
What motivates you to accomplish things in your life (work or personal)?
My children. I have two girls, one at Wake Forest University and the other is at the University of Alabama.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I enjoy being outside as much as possible. Although I am born and raised in Huntsville, AL where I live now, I lived the majority of my adult life in Jackson Hole, WY – so skiing, hiking, biking, camping – are all on the top of my list. I also love going to the lake, SEC football, and traveling.
One thing that always makes you laugh is?
This ridiculous social media reel where two young men take their grandfather to Starbucks and have him make a fake order. I can’t ever get that out of my head, and I’m determined to replicate this with my kids and my mother.
What’s a bucket list item you can’t wait to cross off?
Visiting Japan is at the very top of the list. Iceland and a transatlantic voyage are close seconds.
This month, our theme for social media is “Brainstorming.” Do you have a favorite technique or environment to loosen up your thoughts for maximum idea generation?
I’m a dedicated user of Bose noise-cancelling headphones. I put on my headphones, turn off all devices, and I create and institute a vision in absolute peace.
4 Reasons to Take a Good Look at Our Group Travel Incentives
The Motivation Excellence team takes great pride in the fact that we are a full-service incentives, group travel, meetings, and events agency. We know how important travel is as a desirable reward. We take every detail of a group travel incentive seriously. Because of that, your participants will seriously enjoy each element.
Incentive travel is always about the experience. We elevate the experience so everything from arriving at the airport to taking in local fare to interacting with company leadership is an opportunity for smiles and feeling truly special.
If you have been looking for a partner who will take the stress out of your next group travel experience, here are four good reasons to take a look at the group travel incentives we offer:
1. We Take Care of the Details, Including Contract Negotiations
Our team is skilled at contract negotiations with hotels and suppliers. We know how to manage risk, bolster budgets and alleviate headaches with every contract. As an extension of your team, we are happy to dig into the details so you can focus on other important elements like personal engagement with your stakeholders.
Your dedicated Motivation Excellence travel team handles everything from selecting table linens to hiring the keynote speaker and world-renowned band. F&B, hotel attrition rates, green room requests, transportation options all have their own language. We are fluent!
2. We Handle Registration, Engagement and Follow Up
You and your team have enough on your plates. We have the solution (or two!). Our proprietary travel technology, Inspire, makes organizing, engaging and following-up with your attendees simple and actually, kind of fun! Send us your participant list and let us handle registration, air booking, activity selection and special requests. Each of your attendees will have access to the mobile version so their personalized travel experience is always in the palm of their hand. Your team will have access to drilled down reports all in one place.
Inspire can easily be used to engage your group before the experience with information on the destination, special events and FAQs. During the event you can send out alerts via Inspire. Participants can upload photos to the gallery to share with the group. And there’s no need for printed itineraries since each participant’s schedule is easy to access on the mobile site.
3. We Manage the Entire Experience
Incentive travel programs have a lot of moving parts. Our team of experts has decades of experience with creating and executing award-winning travel experiences. We’re here to assist your team and can take it all on, or pick up the details your team assigns to us. We’re adept at handling the entire experience including:
- Travel logistics
- Group functions
- On-site activities
- Off-site events
- Gifting experiences
- Marketing support
We go above and beyond basic group travel incentives to make sure your participants will be talking about your most recent event for a long time to come. And that’s a natural motivator to make sure they earn the experience every year after!
4. We’re a Full-service Incentive Agency
A successful incentive group travel program starts with creating the rule structure for your participants. This is a sweet spot of ours. We love to dig into industry history, company sales data and potential sales growth within your participant pool. This helps you mitigate risk and maximize opportunities.
We also geek out a bit about building custom performance tracking websites that become the one-stop-shop for everything program related. Easy to read performance to goal gauges are great for participants and our ability to create detailed dashboards for you provides valuable business intelligence that sometimes you didn’t even know you were missing!
Do you need to include some business during your incentive travel reward? We’re adept at planning and executing thoughtful, interactive and motivating meetings on-site. Add in marketing support to create robust engagement around your program and the rewards, and we’ve got you covered on every front. You don’t have to use us for everything, but you have the option to on any program we run.
At Motivation Excellence we’re committed to making your travel incentive program shine from beginning to end, and top to bottom. Our goal is to help you maximize the incentive value by creating an experience unmatched by anything else you have ever done.
Avoiding Workplace Harassment Is Everyone’s Responsibility
Everyone in the workplace contributes to the culture of the environment. This is especially true when it comes to harassment and bullying. While unpleasant behavior from a coworker might not rise to the level of being illegal, it can definitely strongly affect the mood at work, which can lead to lower productivity, depressed morale and even losing talented people. When it comes to nipping harassing behavior before it grows, we all have a role to play.
Is It Me?
Most of us would likely shake our heads fervently if someone asked us if we were the problem. But, obviously, in a harassment or bullying situation, someone IS the instigator, even if they feel like they’re just “having fun” or the other person is just “being sensitive.” It’s important to note that intent doesn’t always matter. You might think you’re making a funny joke or that hugging shows you care or provides comfort to another person. If your behavior, however good-intentioned it may be, causes discomfort to a colleague, you’ll want to change course.
Here are things to avoid:
- Making untoward comments or jokes about someone’s appearance, religion, nationality, gender or disability
- These are protected characteristics that are legally safeguarded in many work environments
- Touching someone, even if it feels like a minor gesture, without knowing if the other person is OK with it
- Using aggressive language, making threats or trying to control someone’s actions
- Repeatedly asking someone out for a date after they’ve said no
Be sure to respect others’ requests to stop certain behaviors. Also, focus on how your actions make another person feel, rather than putting all the weight on your own intentions.
No, It’s You
LRN specializes in building ethical business cultures. In a blog post about harassment in the workplace, they wrote that more than a quarter of office workers in the US and the UK have reported experiencing bullying or harassment at some point in their careers. Zippia, a job placement company, found between 54% and 81% of women report experiencing sexual harassment at work, but many don’t escalate it to a manager.
How do you know if you’re being harassed? Consider these questions:
- Does going to work make you feel uncomfortable, especially knowing you’ll be working with a particular person or group?
- Have you said things like, “I don’t like it when you hug me,” or “Please stop making those jokes around me,” yet the behavior is downplayed or continues?
- Have you reported specific behavior to management, but nothing happens?
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces harassment laws. Isolated incidents, simple teasing and offhand comments do not rise to the level of legal action unless they are very serious or occur frequently. However, the EEOC recommends telling a manager even after one occurrence if it made you feel uncomfortable.
Inspired eLearning suggests the following steps to take if you’re experiencing harassment:
- Talk to the perpetrator and try to resolve it through clear communication
- If the harassment continues, report it to a supervisor or HR representative
- If it still isn’t resolved, you can reach out to the EEOC to report it
What Did I Just See?
Harassing or bullying behavior can include and affect people outside the victim and the offender. If you witness worrying behavior, you can absolutely take steps to help correct it. The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights encourages bystanders to take responsible actions.
- Document it, including the date, the people involved and specifics about what you heard or saw
- If you feel comfortable talking to the victim, tell them you witnessed it and are willing to describe what you saw
- Talk to a manager about your concerns
Bystanders can also talk to the perpetrator, giving them an outside perspective on what they witnessed. Sometimes this is enough to stop future poor behavior. Third parties can also diffuse a situation as it’s happening by stepping in actively to say, “This is not cool,” or subtly by pulling either party away with a request for immediate help on something. A bystander’s presence alone can sometimes mitigate the situation without needing to say a word.
A Team Effort
Harassing behavior is always unwarranted, unwanted, and can be unlawful. It affects not only the victim, but the company culture. Managers need to be mindful of encouraging an open-door policy and following up on reported incidents. Colleagues should feel like they can take a positive role in resolving bad behavior. Victims need to have a clear course of action to report harassment, either through a manager or HR department. Finally, we all must self-reflect to make sure we aren’t causing undue stress on our colleagues through our words or actions.
Get to Know ME with Sheri Racine
It’s time to get to know one of our newer colleagues! Sheri Racine started in June of 2024, getting several months of training from our long-time Merchandise Buyer, before retiring. We’re happy to have Sheri take on the role and bring a new perspective to the team. Please read on, and watch her short video, to learn about her passion outside of work and what she loves doing with her family. Thanks Sheri for participating in our Get to Know ME segment this month!
What’s your current title and how long have you been in the incentive industry?
I am the Merchandise Buyer and I started four months ago, in June 2024. I am new to the incentive industry and excited to be here!
What do you like about your job?
The people I work with, both internally as well as our suppliers. Everyone is so willing to step in and assist.
What’s something you want to share about the people you work with at Motivation Excellence?
They are all amazing. Truly like a family.
What’s a defining moment in your life?
I created a successful product for a previous employer, and ten years later I was on a plane with my family, and it was in the Skymall catalog! It was fun to be able to show it to my children.
What’s an unknown or odd talent you have?
Home Renovations. I love seeing something in a room that can transform it into something completely different and wonderful.
What motivates you to accomplish things in your life (work or personal)?
My children do. I always strive to be someone they look up to. Showing them that you can have a family and work is important.
One thing that always makes you laugh is?
Quick witted people.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I love attending concerts with my family. We love exposing our children to a wide array of genres.
What’s a bucket list item you can’t wait to cross off?
A trip to Italy – hoping to go soon.
This month, our theme for social media is “Workplace Harassment Awareness/Prevention.” Is this important to you? Why or why not?
Yes, I think it’s very important. Everyone should feel comfortable in the workplace.
Know Your Learning Style for Best Results in Life
We really never stop learning. There’s always a trendy gadget to understand or a change in work policy to incorporate or new slang in use…so truly, whether you consider yourself a lifelong learner or not, we are all forced to learn big and little things throughout life. Knowing how you learn best is critical to digesting new information and putting it to good use. Knowing how your colleagues, employees and clients prefer to learn will give you a nice roadmap to follow when you’re the one teaching the lesson.
Know How You Prefer to Learn
There are four widely recognized styles of learning:
- Auditory
- Visual
- Verbal
- Kinesthetic
Each one lends itself to preferred methods of taking in new information.
| Learning Style | Preferred Method of Intake |
| Auditory | Traditional lecture type presentation |
| Visual | Needs to see it in graphs, diagrams, photos, etc. |
| Verbal (reading/writing) | Likes taking notes and reading on own |
| Kinesthetic | Wants to be hands-on, immersed in subject |
It’s important to know where on this spectrum you thrive. You can have a combination of preferred learning styles too. It’s OK to mix and match to find the right fit. For instance, when learning a language, you might prefer to hear others speak while reading along. For car maintenance, you might need to literally get your hands dirty while watching a DIY YouTube video.
To see where you fall, take a VARK (Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, Kinesthetic) assessment.
Know How Others Prefer to Learn
It’s just as important to know how others like to learn, if you’re the teacher. Insperity offers a way to figure out someone else’s learning style from listening to their questions.
| Learning Style | Questions Others Will Ask |
| Auditory | Can you tell me…? |
| Visual | Can you demonstrate that for me? |
| Verbal (reading/writing) | Is there a manual on this? |
| Kinesthetic | Can I try it myself? |
Once you’ve pinpointed your teammates’ learning styles, providing an environment where each can succeed as they absorb new information is important. Cornerstone on Demand defines workplace learning styles slightly differently than VARK and suggests the environment best suited to each type.
| Learning Style | Best Environment |
| Student (visual and verbal) | Learns best seeing presentations and writing notes |
| The Independent | Prefers learning alone than in a group setting |
| The Conversationalist | Likes background noise and talking through things |
| Hands-on Learner | Wants a calm environment and be allowed trial and error time |
Cornerstone adds that when looking at diversity in the workplace, learning style is absolutely part of the equation.
Using a Variety of Methods
At the end of the day, we all prefer to learn in ways unique to our personality and level of self-awareness. Be conscious of that when you’re presenting to a client or selling to a customer. Interactions on your company website will benefit from accommodating a variety of information intake methods: page text, videos, webinars, blogs, summary graphics, full-blown case studies and podcasts.
And if you are someone who prides themselves on tackling new topics, languages, sports or hobbies, know how best to set yourself up for success right from the beginning. Just because you’re out of school, doesn’t mean you don’t have a lot more to learn!
Get to Know ME with Iris Huisman
If you want to have a talk with a calming personality, look no further than Iris Huisman (pronounced Ear-ess House-man). No wonder she excels in the sometimes hectic incentive, meetings and events industry; she’s cool under pressure and makes you feel like “everything is going to be alright.” Thank you Iris for participating in our Get to Know ME segment. Read on, and watch her video, to get to know her better.
What’s your current title and how long have you been in the incentive industry?
I am a Program Manager as part of the Travel Department at Motivation Excellence. I started my career in the M&IT industry as a graduate trainee in England way back in 1997. I have had many roles in the industry since then, both on the client side as well as for a DMC and of course many years on the agency side. Wearing many different hats has given me a unique perspective when helping clients find the best solutions for their meetings and incentive programs.
What do you like about your job?
I love the variety this work provides and seeing the end result when lots of planning and creative thinking comes to fruition. Of course, the opportunity to travel is nice too; I am fortunate to have experienced many great destinations all over the world.
What’s something you want to share about the people you work with at Motivation Excellence?
The people I work with on my team at Motivation Excellence care a lot about doing what is right for our clients and providing the best service. But more than that, the team really cares about each other, and that is something that I think makes this a great place to work.
What’s a specific moment in your history that always stands out as a defining moment, and why?
Wow, that is a tough question. There have been quite a few pivotal moments in my life: moving to England when I was 18 with the plan to stay for only a year, and staying for almost 13, moving to the United States in 2006, dealing with the loss of my dad, stepdad and mum all in quick succession; all of these moments have had a profound impact on shaping me into the person I am today.
What’s an unknown or odd talent you have?
I wish I could say that I inherited my dad’s musical talent. He was a musician all his life, but no amount of piano and flute lessons could ever get me to come even close.
What motivates you to accomplish things in your life (work or personal)?
Maybe cheesy, but my kids are my biggest motivator – showing up for them and everything they want to achieve in life has been driving me forward toward bigger and better things. I want them to know that their mum has done, is doing, and will do her best to support them.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I love hiking and taking in the beauty that is all around us here in North Georgia (when it is not 100 degrees 😊). I love to run and play tennis. And if I had my way, I would live somewhere where I could go skiing regularly. I also like to read – Ken Follett has been a favorite of mine recently.
One thing that always makes you laugh is?
Good comedy! I love Bill Burr and Ricky Gervais; their sense of humor speaks to me.
What’s a bucket list item you can’t wait to cross off?
I am really hoping to have the opportunity to take my kids on safari in Africa. I was fortunate to plan and operate a few programs on the African continent and it has left a lasting impression on me; I want them to have that experience too.
This month, our theme for social media is “Learning Styles.” Do you prefer to learn in a certain way? How do you make sure you’re digesting work information in the best way for you?
I think my learning style is a mixture of things; I am more of a kinesthetic than an auditory learner, but for some things, logical/analytical learning works better. To digest certain information, I am still a little old school and like to print certain documents out, so I can take notes while learning the material.
