‘Tooting the Horn’ of the Awards Guru, now a CRP!

I am usually the last person to self-promote, give myself praise, or anything to that effect.  Believe it or not, it is really quite hard to give myself acknowledgement or recognition for what I do in the world.  I much rather give it to others, in particular my staff, family, friends or customers.  For this article, though, I will break that practice for a few minutes.

I recently completed the RPI (Recognition Professionals International) certification program that allows me to put the initials CRP after my name.  It means Certified Recognition Professional.  Even though the funny side of me wants to find out a cleaver way to drop an A in CRP, I haven’t figured out something suitable…yet.

Besides learning principles, disciplines and best practices, I learned a lot about the rewards and recognition industry.  I am fascinated by how certain businesses apply recognition to a corporate culture and yield tremendous results.  I am also fascinated why, despite a mountain of evidence and ease of application, that more managers and c-level executives are not begging to implement change in their business.  Over the last 4 days (plus several from last year, too), I saw practitioners who were supported by their management and those that weren’t.  Consistently, those who were supported from the CEO on down not only loved their job, but came through with the best effort and results for their company.

I also gained friendships from my fellow classmates that will enrich my life.  Besides the important stuff (food, drinks and laughter), I know feel like I have a support group that will help me when I run into difficulties.  Thanks as well to the RPI staff, instructors, other CRP graduates, and even the staff at the Newport Beach Marriott Resort and Spa.  All of you did a great job in putting together a world-class event.

If your job puts you in the world of practicing recognition or being a resource provider to businesses, please consider the CRP certification program.

If you are looking to partner with an awards supplier who knows far more than the norm, I am your man!  As far as I can tell, I am the first and only retail awards supplier member to become a CRP designee.  My co-workers also know their stuff, too :-).  We are ready to give our best - to serve you with knowledge, tools and products that assist with your recognition needs.

What is the ‘Awards Guru’ doing to change?

Don’t you love referring to yourself in the 3rd person?  As you can image, the ‘Awards Guru’ name is a title - it is not meant to pump up my ego or to make myself look more important to others.  To me, it keeps me centered on the fact that, yes, I am in the awards industry, and yes, I do know quite a bit about awards and recogntion.  Everything?  Not by a long-shot!

To share what is going on in my life to improve my knowledge base, here are a couple of groups that I am involved with:

recognition.org - I am completing my certification in April to be a CRP (Certified Recognition Professional).  I feel this is a great foundation of understanding the essentials of awards programs and their benefits.

ara.org - I am volunteering to be on the education committee for the Awards and Recognition Association.  I feel like there is improvement that can occur in this organization.  My strongest passion is around improving the education of awards and recognition vendors.

Entrepreneurs Association (EO) - Seattle - I will be serving on the EO Seattle board from July 1, 2008 for a 2 year term.  For me, the EO organization fuels my entrepreneurial spirit and helps me maintain a decent work/life balance.

 The new trophies.org.  Ever heard of social entrepreneurship?  Look for good things to come from the new and improved trophies.org in the future!

Hopefully through my energy, desire and expanding knowledge, I will be a voice of positive change for the recognition industry.  I feel like the journey is just beginning…

Announcing our 2nd Quarter ‘Awards for a Cause’ Charity

We are proud to announce this quarter’s ‘Awards for a Cause’ charity - PICC of Kent, Washington.  Each quarter, Trophies2Go.com chooses a charity or cause to rally behind.  This month we are doing so by featuring several products and donating a set amount per item sold to PICC.

To view our current ‘Awards for a Cause’ click http://www.trophies2go.com/charities.

Never heard of Pediatric Interim Care Center (PICC)?  Here is a link and a bit about them.  This is a charity that needs our help today!

The Newborn Nursery, (PICC) is a one-of-a-kind, model program that provides specialized, 24-hour care for drug-exposed and medically fragile newborns. PICC brings babies safely through withdrawal from drugs, including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, methadone, and prescription drugs. The pioneering program also facilitates visitation for families, provides caregiver training, follows the babies after they leave, and offers a range of community outreach and education services. PICC is in Kent, Washington, 20 miles southeast of Seattle and is the only 24-hour care center serving drug-exposed infants throughout Washington State.

Leading the Awards Industry through Environmental Change

I will be the first to admit.  Our environmental footprint has been poor in the past.

That is changing in a big way.

Through the hard work of Anne and Janice, our resident experts on change, we are poised to make some great steps towards being more environmentally friendly.

I will spare you the details, but our program will focus on:

1) Waste management and recycling.

2) Energy and water consumption - gas, electricity and water.

3) Our use of environmentally friendly materials.

4) Requesting vendors to use different packaging.

 This year will be spent identifying areas of improvement as well as implementing change.  We will then focus on communicating our successes and influencing others.  Our commitment is to improve and we are on our way.

Awards for a Cause - Trophies2go giving back to the community

For the past 8 years, we have quietly supported many organizations through in-kind sponsorships, auction donations, cash donations and product discounts.

We have recently launched a program called “Awards for a Cause”.  The items that we feature in this section will have a donation amount attached to them.  For each item we sell, we will make a donation to the corresponding charity assigned to that product.

Depending on the urgency of the cause we support, we may choose to assign all of the ‘Awards for a Cause’ items to a single charity.  We hope to continue to give back to the community and various organizations through your support. 

Please visit our ‘Awards for a Cause’ section before your next purchase.

Weekly Promotions from February 11th through March 30th

Want a super deal?  Look no further!  For the next 7 weeks we will be having a ‘Special of the Week’.  The discounts and promotions below are in addition to our already great quantity discounts.  These promotions will also be emailed to our customers around February 10th, but I wanted to get them posted to my blog as soon as possible.  In the past we have not offered extra discounts, but what the heck, this is a new year!  We plan on offering weekly specials throughout the year.  After these promotions expire, we will be offering 4 weeks of savings on select corporate awards. 

The promo code needs to be entered on the confirmation (last) page of the checkout.  Offer is valid only when placing an order through the trophies2go.com website. 

February 11-17th - Free UPS Ground Shipping on all orders of $50 or more.  This applies to both our Bronze and Emerald shipping levels.  Promo code: freeship50

February 18-24th - 25% off selected Winter Sports Dog Tags.  Your choice of Basketball (product 8663), Hockey (8130), Volleyball (8135) or Wrestling (8818).  Promo code: winter08dog

February 25th - March 2nd - 20% off Basketball Shield Resin Trophies.  Your choice of male (product 8648) or female (8649).  Promo code: winter08shield

March 3-9th - 20% off MVP Basketball Trophies.  Your choice of male (product 8646) and female (8647). Promo code: winter08mvp

March 10-16th - 20% off All-Star Basketball Team Trophy with Column Choice.  Your choice of gender (product 8658).  Promo code: winter08allstar

March 17-23rd - 20% off Rock ‘n Bop Basketball Bobblehead Trophies.  Your choice of male (product 8635) or female (8634).  Promo code: winter08bobble

March 24-30th - All items 10% off storewide.  Promo code: allitems10

 I hope you enjoy the extra savings.  We look forward to providing your meaningful recognition!

Kip Beelman - Raising the bar in Seattle Photography

I have 4 very close friends who are photographers in the Seattle area. I have had a chance to work with 3 of them in the past (Michelle Enebo, Dana Wasuyluka and Michael Johnson) and had incredible success with all of them. Add to them Kip Beelman.

Recently, my marketing mastermind suggested I needed some up-to-date pictures of me for PR, internet marketing and the such. Since I am no Tom Cruise, I needed some serioushelp. In steps Kip Beelman. In steps Kip Beelman’s gear. In steps Kip Beelman’s expertise.

Kip was very gracious in coming to my house on a Sunday evening. He envisioned the poses, set-up his gear and had me flash my cheezy grin. Below are a few samples of what came out of the session. Get used to them. After my marketing guy gets a hold of them, they will probably be plastered throughout the internet. I will hold my favorite back for when I hit the cover of a magazine. Oh, I forgot, I am not getting a ton of calls to be on a magazine cover. If that is the case, I will show it to you anyway…

While he was hot, my girls, Brenna (7 1/2 Years Old) and Audrey (4) got on their ‘Poofy Dresses’ from Carol. By the way, how did they grow up so fast?

When you have a minute, please check out Kip’s site. Not only are there incredible images, but there is great music to complement them as well. I am very fortunate to have quality friends like Kip in my life and am extra thankful that some of them have unspeakable talent. Thanks, Kip!

Does your Awards Supplier have Site Search?

Today we went live with site search on the trophies2go.com home page.  It is a very interactive tool designed to quickly and efficiently find the product you are looking for.  The user starts with a keyword, category or unique characteristic for their award.  They type it in to the search box in the upper-right hand corner of our site and click the ‘Go’ button.  Our site reveals products with those characteristics and also allows the user to refine the search by category, material, price, size or several other factors.  The results are given in either a grid or list format below the criteria.  The user can then resort the results by popularity or price. 

This new feature is provided by Nextopia.  If you have a moment, please try it out and let me know what you think!

As described earlier, you can find it on the trophies2go.com home page in the upper right hand corner.  In the next few weeks, we will also be adding site search to our smaller sites as well.

Thanks, Jeff

Should I give my kids trophies? What’s up with the attitude?

At a recent social function, I was confronted by an individual whom I have met previously.  He happened to be a touch inebriated, but his honesty was real and probably echoes the thought of others.  He said, “I don’t believe in giving my kids trophies, they should earn it.”

So there I was, the leader of an awards company, trying to defend why he should give his kid a trophy.  I gave it my best shot outlining the pros/cons of the psychological benefits of positive affirmation, etc. and he was still left with a blank look on his face.  In retrospect, my answer should have been, “don’t give them trophies, then.”  There seems to be a backlash of people who don’t want to give trophies.  I have heard so many reasons not to award trophies, that it seems as if my customers are bitter at me.  They think I am “forcing” them to buy their kid a trophy.

So then I sit and shake my head and think…what is up with the attitude?  Why are they so ticked off?  I might never say this to one’s face as it might start an argument, but here are a few of my hypothesis on why they are upset and don’t want to buy their kids trophies (am I serious or joking?  Hmmm, you decide.):

1) They didn’t win any trophies when they were a kid.  Are they still bitter from 30 years ago when they lost the championship game and didn’t get a trophy?  Note: that was 30 years ago.  This is now.  Get over it - you lost.  Don’t take it out on your kid.

2) They wish they would have gotten a trophy for ‘just showing up’.  Again, that was 30 years ago.  Fast forward to today.  I feel the truth is that kids do care about recognition.  They want to be validated by their coach or parents for a job well done.  Chances are there have been multiple instances when a child feels like they have done something recognition-worthy over the course of the season.  If you don’t want to buy them an award, why don’t you take them out for ice cream or give them a pat on the head…just don’t leave your kid thirsty for your praise.  This is what makes felons.

3) Cost – Things may be a little tight the wallet?  I understand this thought, but really, what else can you buy for $6-10 that will bring your child a touch of joy now and for years to come?

4) You don’t think a teammate’s family can afford it.  My guess is this is just trying to cover up #1, 2 or 3 above.  If it is the honest truth, though, I suggest checking to see if others are willing to chip in and buy that child’s award.  If they aren’t willing, please don’t leave the child out of your awards party.  Email me at jeff@trophies2go.com and I will see what I can do…

So here I am at the end of another monologue…here is my summary:

I want our customers to want to recognize their kids, employees or co-workers for accomplishing their goals and achieving success (however that may be defined by them).  These are the good things in life, why not celebrate them?!?!?  If you are having bitterness when it comes to buying awards, I invite you to reference the above reasons and see if these feelings are caused by your past.  If they are, maybe you can break the cycle and pass on some fun, joy or excitement in the form of a symbol of meaningful recognition – of course you can find these at www.trophies2go.com.

 

Coming in 2008

As the New Year approaches, there are many new features that are in our pipeline to improve our customers’ online experience.  The purpose of this article is to give a sneak peek of these improvements.

• On all 9 of our sites (trophies2go.com, issaquahtrophy.com, pokertrophies.com, cheapbaseballtrophies.com, cheapbasketballtrophies.com, cheapgolftrophies.com, cheaphockeytrophies.com, cheapsoccertrophies.com and cheapfootballtrophies.com), we will be implementing ‘Site Search’.  This will give the user quick access to all of our products, the ability to refine the search by several product attributes and help with misspellings.
• Improved product descriptions.  We will be altering all of our product descriptions to be more descriptive and give the user a better mental picture of the product.
• Product reviews.  We will be adding the ability for customers who purchase products to review them.  This will give prospective new customers another means of ensuring their product selection is right for them.
• Improved product detail page.   We will be altering our product detail page to me more efficient.  We will add product attributes, product reviews and alter the engraving input to be on this page instead of a pop-up window.
• Improved check-out process.  We will be re-engineering the checkout process to be more compact and efficient.  This will help with the speed in which it takes to check-out.  We will also be adding a guest-shopper feature that will also assist those who want to be one-time buyers.
• Improved transactional emails.  After our customers place an order, the order confirmation email, order shipped email and post-order email asking for feedback will be improved.
• And Much More!  If we told you everything we were up to, how could we surprise you?  Long story short, look for great things from us in 2008!

As we grow, our pledge is to continually improve our systems to make your awards purchase painless and worry-free.  Our goal is to be the best in the industry.  These changes will be a great step in continuing our improvement and our customers’ user experience.