Category: Blog

Years ago, the titans of commerce established the tradition of the Holiday Bonus. Over time it took many forms. An envelope of cash, a Christmas turkey, a bonus cheque, bottles of wine, or a gift basket. Unfortunately the practice wasn’t always conducted altruistically, as often it was used to prevent staff defections or as a way to circumvent paying earned overtime. But it’s origins were pure and indeed many companies well understood the benefits of rewarding employees for a year’s solid performance.

When I was a young titan of newspaper delivery, the Christmas bonus was eagerly awaited. As an eleven year old paperboy I made about five or six dollars, a week, delivering to forty households. But come the week before Christmas, it was my chance to rack up some riches. Most of my client households slipped me a card which I couldn’t wait to open, though I rarely read them. The notes I was looking for were of the currency type. Namely the one and two dollar bills that flowed out of them. Sometimes the odd fiver showed up, to which I said a silent prayer of thanks. By the time I was done with my Holiday Haul, I easily had scored over a month’s extra pay. For me the Christmas Bonus was alive and well.

I still relish the gifts I get from clients.

Not that they are sending me cash bonuses!

No, my clients give me something much more valuable than money. They give me feedback, candour, collaboration, and opportunity. Those are things that money can’t buy. This of course is in addition to the financial renumeration they provide all year. Which allows me to employ a team of highly deserving, capable, and inspiring colleagues. This funding allows them to pursue their professional dreams and aspirations, while establishing their own personal ability to support the families they will someday create. Or in many cases have already started.

This week we are celebrating with our clients and industry friends. Together we will raise a glass to celebrate the season, to remember a year’s worth of business triumphs and challenges, and to give thanks for the support of one another. If you don’t (didn’t) make it to our Holiday Blast, I want to still thank you personally for all you mean to us.

I often tell my young interns that without clients, we wouldn’t have a business. In case I haven’t told you lately, that’s why I’m writing to you today.

Gracious, humble thanks to all our clients and patrons.

Happy Holidays.

I workout to lose weight.

I run to brainstorm.

I rehearse to do better presentations.

I read to stimulate creativity.

I draft plans to run better practices.

I take lessons to learn how to ski.

I don’t know how to train my sixth sense. I wonder if it’s possible to train something that there is no tangible evidence I have. What is a sixth sense? Paranoia? Anticipation? ESP?

Do you have a sixth sense? What do you call it? Spidy Sense? Little Voice? Inner Voice? Golden Angel? Personal Compass? Third Eye?

I usually refer to mine by my nickname. Herschel. As in Walker. As in a nickname I got a long time ago.

Seems to me recently my sixth sense is slipping. I’ve been caught off guard in a few situations. I don’t like when that happens. In fact, I hate it. It usually results in me creating a conversation with myself. Well actually with Herschel. You can probably imagine the dialogue. MH3, which is my professional nickname, giving grief to Herschel, my personal nickname. Wonder how Mark gets involved in all this. Not sure, third man in is usually a game misconduct penalty.

Having an active sixth sense is a good thing. In politics it can be anticipating what is bothering your consitutuents. In sport it can be anticipating where your opponents are headed. In life it can be feeling a loved one’s feelings before they are expressed.

Too much of a sixth sense can be a bad thing. You can end up second guessing yourself. Too much doubt creates inertia. A one man stalemate that will always stop you from succeeding. So a balance is needed.

That said, a sharp sixth sense is a saw that can be put to good use. Mine needs a bit of sharpening. I’m looking for ideas on how to fine tune it. Saying it out loud is the first step.

There was far too much chatter in Vancouver about the Grey Cup game not being a sellout.

No the game didn’t max out. But anytime you can put 50,000 people in a neutral site stadium, I think it’s pretty amazing.

But the best talk about tickets came to me from a friend of mine.

She works for a very large CFL sponsor and has access to VIP seats at almost any event you might want to attend. On her way to the stadium Sunday she was advised that her company had tickets that were going unused. She acted swiftly as she knew some VIP’s that could use them.

Randomly she started her search on the Vancouver streets around BC Place. It wasn’t long before she found exactly who she was looking for. Great CFL fans who were ready to celebrate but didn’t have tickets to the game. An innocent question to find out if they were attending often produced a real life answer such as the one she received from one young boy.

“There is no way my Mom could afford it.”

To his astonishment out came two free tickets. An eruption of disbelief, tears and hugs got them in the spirit of the big game.

Several more times she went into action. Most recipients didn’t believe her. One guy, in his mid 20’s, thought she was hitting on him. Maybe in his dreams! Almost all thought there was a catch, hidden camera, or a mischievous friend at work. But no, just a quick thinking marketing executive who couldn’t bear the thought of those ducats being wasted.

These random acts of kindness created the truest VIP’s at this year’s Grey Cup. The holders of those tickets will never know who their guardian angle was for the day. But they will never forget her.

Last night we held our second Canadian Football Hall of Fame Induction Party. Hall of Fame ED Mark DeNobile shared the seven names comprising the 2015 class. I was excited to hear the name Bob Obillovich called. Obie represents a special period in Argo history guiding the team to a 1983 Grey Cup victory that marked the Boatmem’s first crown in thirty years. Coach Obillovich, a Montana native, spent fifty years in the Canadian league as a player, coach, and executive. He came North for a job and would up with a career, a wife, a family, and a new country.

To me he represented all round class. He was famous but never acted it. He was tough but never mean. He was long winded, but with a purpose. Last night was no different. Obie told stories that humanized what Canadian football is all about. Really what all team sports are about. He’s about to be enshrined in 2015 in a special place. He will now be famous forever.

I have the happiest stewardess ever spotted on an Air Canada flight. She’s proudly violating the airline’s untouchable dress code by wearing her Tiger-Cats Eastern Final yellow towel over her company issued apron. These game day swag rags look suspiciously like the iconic Pittsburgh Steeler Terrible Towel and were out in full force last Sunday at Terrain-Tim Hortons-Field. That’s the official stadium name according to the signage all over it. I didn’t know the Francophone population in Hamilton was so large, but then again I don’t live there so how can I comment. Back to the towel sported by my anomaly of a stewardess. She proudly told me Sunday past was the best Ti-Cats game she had ever seen but was hoping Sunday approaching (Coupe Grey Cup 102) would relegate it to second best. She’s got three cross country 777 jaunts between now and kick-off but her seats are awaiting for her in BC Place..Row P on the 50 yard line. Just look for that yellow towel and mile high grin.

Boarded the 7:00 AM for Vancouver today and have to admit I was a bit surprised I didn’t see more CFL fans on the plane. That said I did witness a first. A guy wearing an Argos backpack with a Green Riders hat. Did he marry a Saskatchewan gal? Did he move to the 416 for work, but can’t betray his homeland. Can’t imagine he would jump on the Argo ship then. Perhaps I missed the fact he’s wearing Blue Bomber boxer shorts and Alouettes socks and he’s actually a coast to coast fan?

It’s the time of year when Canadian Football takes its moment in the spotlight.

High school football is in full city and provincial championship swing. Community leagues are nearing their final playoff games. The CIS is marching steadily towards the Telus Vanier Cup in Montreal and a milestone 50th anniversary. The annual nation-wide CFL party disguised as a football game is being marketed as Roar on the Shore this year. It’s a great theme for a Vancouver-hosted Grey Cup.

South of the border, eleven weeks of NFL madness has me praying for a Browns-Bengals-Ravens collapse and the NCAA Football Playoff race is more intriguing than even the selection of Condoleezza Rice to it’s selection committee.

But while the NCAA has landed on yet another winning formula, what holds for the future of collegiate ball in Canada? It was virtually impossible for me to find the Yates Cup OUA Football Championship on TV last Saturday. Apparently it was online on something called OUATV and also broadcast/fed/streamed across Rogers community cable. But if you were an alumnus of either school, or just a university football fan, how hard are you willing to work to find this game?

If you’re a diehard fan and have an interest in the Vanier Cup, but also want to go to the Grey Cup, you know need a transnational flight to whisk you from Montreal to Vancouver in two weeks. Of course it’s doable, but costly.

Why isn’t the Vanier Cup part of the Grey Cup anymore? Two of the most successful Vanier events were when the football titles were paired. I understand sponsor conflicts, and now broadcaster conflicts, but running head to head with the Grey Cup doesn’t make sense to me. Sponsors, media, broadcasters, donors, and football zealots are split.

The Grey Cup, under the polished eye of soon to be departing CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon, has grown amazingly in the past several years. I can remember attending games in the late 90’s that couldn’t sell out and barely inspired community involvement. Today it’s back to its glory of yesteryear and quite frankly gone far beyond. The festival, the parades, the parties, the half-time acts are all best in class. Last year I was awed by the in-stadium branding, which now has a consistent look on an annual basis.

Cohon and his team have built a machine. So if the Vanier Cup isn’t going to partner with them, I think there is a sizable need to build it’s own event, on it’s own weekend, and break the mold. I don’t mean the mold of a current pattern; I mean the mold growing on the Vanier Cup because pretty soon the brand will be tarnished.

I am not picking on the CIS. In fact this is the opposite. I love CIS football. I saw three live games this year at two different stadiums which probably puts me in the .00001% of Canadian sports fans. It’s an amazing product waiting for some corporate love.

Football at all levels in Canada is a wide-open opportunity. Too often marketers get caught up in the participation numbers. No it’s not soccer with a million kids running across this country. But it is a sport with a much deeper impact than it’s numbers. Football programs bring significance to a city, a university, a high school, and a community. This may be a hockey country, with some hoop mad cities (hello the “6”!), and soccer on the brain of every young girl right now. But football is right up there.

The CFL has proven the power of the sport. Look at the billions in construction it has recently attracted. There is more opportunity out there. Smart marketers should start drafting their playbook this November.

PS. If you’re going to be in Vancouver during Grey Cup weekend and I haven’t invited you to one of our Canadian Football Hall of Fame events drop me a line.

I have never had more conversations about the Canadian military than I have in the past weeks.

The recent murders of Cpl. Nathan Cirlillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, along with the training death of Private Steven Allen have rung an extra somber note on this week’s Remembrance Day ceremonies. But they have also cast a deserving spotlight on the women and men who have and continue to serve our country.

I was in Hamilton on the weekend and it was impossible not to think of Cpl. Cirlillo and the mourning in that community. The mother of one of my young Peewee football players who took him to see Cpl. Cirlillo’s gravesite inspired me. It made me hope that perhaps these tragedies will help our next generations understand the sacrifices made in the Great War, that marked it’s 100th anniversary this week, and in subsequent global and regional conflicts.

Perhaps these tragedies will provide the political will to ensure we invest more in our services. I hope we never become the military-industrial complex of our southern neighbours, but decades of endless federal government budget cuts to our defence spending are putting our men and women at needless risk. These men and women, and those before them, are willing to sacrifice their way of life, and potentially even living, so we can live in a country like Canada.

Do we want to continue to be a country that fights terrorism or one that is strangled by terrorism? Do we want to be a country where rights and freedoms for all its inhabitants is paramount, or one with ethnic wars and where schoolgirls are sold into slavery? Do we want to live in a country where we can respond to natural disasters or one where we are a natural disaster?

As Canadians we need to do more than remember. We need to speak up. We need to educate our leaders. We need to educate our young. We need to educate ourselves.

Let’s inspire more bright women and men to serve. Let’s support them with our respect and our wallets. Let’s keep Canada Canada.

Let’s remember the smile of Cpl. Nathan Cirlillo. Let’s remember the photo of his dogs waiting for their master to come home. Let’s remember the funeral day pictures of his young son, handsomely sporting a regimental hat.

Let all of us remember that the sacrifice of his Dad for you, me, and our families means that this young man will grow up without the greatest hero a son can have.

A father.

Hello Friends;

It’s time for my annual Movember campaign.

Over the past few years you have supported me with unbelievable generosity and kindness. Every year I am amazed at the unexpected flow of donations that I receive.

This year I am dedicating my efforts to a valued colleague who has been in a yearlong health battle. His resilience and spirit have been unbelievable as he deals with an endless roller coaster of treatments, surgeries, test results, and fleeting good news that often has quickly turned to bad. I have yet to hear him mutter a single complaint. I have yet to hear him feel sorry for himself.

Please join me in supporting Movember. I have been fortunate to get to know the PEOPLE behind Movember and they care, care, care. So whether you grow your own Mo, support a friend’s Mo, or are a mo Sistsa….my hat goes off to you.

If you wish to support me and my efforts, here is my Mospace link.

Thank-you from the bottom of my heart.

TOmorrow has begun.

TOmorrow we wake up and the tragic comedy will be over.
TOmorrow the embarrassment of being a TOrontonian will vanish.
TOmorrow Jimmy Kimmel will need some new material.

TOmorrow we will finish massive construction projects, open new transit lines, build new condominiums, welcome new Canadians, learn how to combat Ebola, strengthen our defences against terrorism, host the Pan Am Games, get ready for Canada’s 150^th, host the World Juniors, stage the NBA All-Star game, and celebrate annual Pride festivities.

TOmorrow our public face at these milestones will be someone who will respect each of these moments as they deserve.

TOmorrow is an opportunity for all TOrontonians. We can’t just rely on one mayor or fourty-four councillors. It is up to all of us to do our part. Massive voter turnout was just one step. Now we all, young and old, must contribute to community building, job creation, cultural development, environmental cleanup, civic pride, and unifying actions.

A great TOronto is essential for our great country.

We can’t wait any longer. Thankfully TOmorrow is here.