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MH3 Events, Marketing, Properties, Sponsors, Sponsorship, Sports

NHL All-Star Weekend Rocks

My apologies to Allstar Weekend for borrowing their URL to entitle my blog! But it was the first title that popped into my mind, and I am too pooped to come up with something else, so I don’t give a poop if they don’t like it. Besides, I have no idea who this band is…

Just kidding!

Nevertheless, “NHL” All-Star Weekend does rock in countless ways. You may not understand unless you’ve had a chance to be part of more than just the game. The NHL has taken this weekend and elevated it to a major, major, major league marketing extravaganza.

Whether it be the Scotiabank NHL Fan Fair, or the Energizer Lithium Lounge at Saturday night’s party hosted at the Molson Canadian Hockey House, there is something for young and old. Continue reading “NHL All-Star Weekend Rocks” →

MH3 Coaching, Football, Life Lessons, Opinion, Sports

Joe Pa

I apologize if you think I blog too much about football.

It’s a fair critique by the way, but I’m a big boy, I can take it. My thicker-than-usual skin on this subject matter was incubated through countless years of advice from my parents. You see, this football obsession was started at an early age and I was appropriately counseled by my folks to not put all of my eggs in a single metaphorical basket. They were right… to an extent.

But critique or not, it is nearly impossible to avoid blogging about the passing of the winningest major (U.S.) college football coach of all time, especially given the pigskin-related headlines that dominate the news. The Super Bowl contenders have been chosen. Planning for the 100th Grey Cup is well underway. Coaches are being hired, fired and re-hired, on both sides of the border. Plus, the whole horrific Sandusky allegations are rolling towards trial. (I have taken into consideration the request of the university’s interim president and stopped calling it the Penn State Affair. It really was the alleged evil of one sick individual, as opposed to an institutional crime. Unless we find out the institution’s level of complicity is higher than any of us grossly unimagined.)

The topic at hand, of course, is the sad farewell we must give Joe Paterno, who died last weekend at age 85. Continue reading “Joe Pa” →

MH3 Life Lessons, Living Life, Work

Power Hungry

I haven’t read Influencing Powerful People yet, so I can’t give you a review on it, but it promises sixteen proven rules on how to deal with the powerful people in your life. This list of people could include a boss, client, business partner or international colleague according to the author, Dirk Schlimm. Jokingly, at least in his live presentations about the book, he also suggests it could be the border control officer you encounter at customs, or a teenager requesting the use of the car from her parents. Continue reading “Power Hungry” →

MH3 Life Lessons

Gift Receipt

In the cold dark hours of the morning, as I dragged my recycling bin to the curb, I had a chance encounter with my newspaper carrier. It always seems odd to me watching adults deliver the paper. Not that there is anything wrong with it… but having been a ten-year-old paper-boy growing up, I still can’t shake the paradigm that the paper should be delivered by the neighbourhood kid.

Every once in a while, my departure time coincides with the delivery of one of our early morning newspapers. Usually my interaction with the delivery person is a nodded confirmation that the rag should be left on my porch, followed by a mumbled thank-you for his services.

This recent morning wasn’t much longer, but gratifyingly much more meaningful, all because of a single sentence uttered by my trusty town crier. It was all in the quick moment he took to thank me for his Christmas bonus.

Thank-you is an underused and invaluable phrase. Continue reading “Gift Receipt” →

MH3 Business, Living Life, Opinion, TrojanOne, Work

Not Another “Year in Review”

It seems this time of year, journalists get even lazier than normal and run endless versions of Year in Review, Year in Photos, Year in Quotes, Year in Tweets, etc.

So as a casual blogger and wannabe scribe, am I going to hold myself to a higher bar? Heck no. My middle name is “Bandwagon,” so look out because I am jumping on. Continue reading “Not Another “Year in Review”” →

MH3 Coaching, Life Lessons, Living Life, Sports, Travel

Hey, Bus Driver!

Riding the bus to Detroit this morning.

Big game at Joe Louis Arena today, playing the Trenton Cobras with a 4:30 puck drop. Wonder how big of a crowd we will get?

The Cobras are from Trenton, Michigan. We are the York Mills Minor Peewee Select Rangers. York Mills being the “skiers league” in Toronto. These Rangers in particular are my son’s team.

What the heck is a “skiers league”? In essence, it’s a hockey league populated by families that have other priorities. Schedule-wise, it looks like a normal hockey league, until the snow falls and then all games and practices are essentially held on weeknights. Weekends are held sacred for downhill pursuits.

So how will this would-be group of Crazy Canucks do against the Cobras? I have to admit to looking for some info about them online. Does that make me an overzealous, hockey-mad parent? Because I Googled a team of 11-year-olds playing tier-three select hockey? Continue reading “Hey, Bus Driver!” →

MH3 Cause/Fundraising, Marketing, Sponsorship, TrojanOne, Work

Movember’s over. What Next?

Tonight marks the official end of Movember, at least in mo’ world, as I head off to the big Gala Parté at Kool Haus.

It’s been a record year. Last I heard, the Canadian fundraising total was over $32 million and I bet by the time you read this, the number will start with a three, and end above a five (Yes, I am predicting at least $35 million, if my bad word puzzle didn’t make sense).

With over 240,000 people supporting Movember, it has to be one of the largest fundraising events in the country, if not one of the greatest movements of our time.

I am very proud of our company team, MojanOne, chasing our $20,000 goal and our current ranking of number 87 in the ‘Top 100’ corporate teams nationally. Unreal. Super heartfelt thanks goes out to Jody Facchini, our MojanOne team captain. She was elected by her MojanOne teammates to lead our internal committee and knocked it out of the park… like with everything she tackles. She even got my family dog on board!

Also, a HUGE thanks to all of you who supported my own fundraising efforts. As of press time, I was at THREE-THOUSAND, THREE-HUNDRED AND  SIXTY SMACKERS!  Wowee! Thankee!

If you don’t read this until Saturday or later, by that time I will be clean-shaven. I am debating between drunkenly shaving it off myself tonight after the Parté, or waiting till the a.m. to go see Alfred, my trusty barber on Mount Pleasant Road. Any advice amigos?

So now what? It took me a while to get into the swing of things this year, despite my being on the Movember Toronto Committee (Big shout out to Jordan Vader & Casey Rovinelli for their leadership, not to mention Movember Canada national director Pete “Bomber” Bombaci!). In fact, I really didn’t start canvassing hard until mid-month.

Subconsciously, I think I needed to be emboldened by my ‘stache. Once it started to come in… it was almost like I was granted hairy super powers. Because strand by strand, I raised more and more money… to the point where I am now wondering whether this hairy lip was my personal long-lost elixir?
So what’s next? Once my lip turns from black (and grey) to itchy red, what do I do? Can you believe it? Movember has created a new side effect. A post-Movember mood, in the month of December.

What will now galvanize our company? What will dominate water cooler chat? What will we discuss for the first fifteen minutes of every meeting we are in? What will replace the office chirping the growth-challenged have faced?

Perhaps the holidays? Year-end budgets? Office parties? The first sign of snow? School breaks? The race towards NFL playoffs? Boxing Day shopping? New Year’s parties? Resolutions for 2012? All of the above?

Whatever it is… I hope we can all take a wee lesson from Movember. Our time on this earth is precious. Many people will face issues like prostate cancer. Serious, deadly issues. Let’s do our best to conquer these issues. Whether they are personal, physical, or professional.

But along the way, let’s have fun.

MH3 Blog, Cause/Fundraising, TrojanOne, Work

Mo’ Money

I was called out Monday at our company-wide meeting – internally known as ChalkTalk – for not having raised enough money for our MojanOne Movember fundraising efforts. Ouch!

The other day someone said ‘How come you’re not blogging about Movember?’ Double ouch!

Then I looked online at my totals. Oh boy. Triple whammy.

So it’s time to rev up the engines and generate some Mo’ Money!

That’s where you come in. This is the one and only time I will hit you up all year for a direct pitch. But of course, if I want you to open your wallets and share your Front of the Line Amex or your Team Visa or your Priceless MasterCard numbers with me, I need to give you something in return… or at least provide valid reasons why you should donate to the cause.

So here goes… ten reasons for you to donate to my Movember Mo Space page on behalf of my company team. Continue reading “Mo’ Money” →